This week, we had a workshop led by Frazer Merrick, a sound artist known for building his own instruments and experimenting with creative technology. His work was very inspiring to me, especially his Arcadia project. An interactive exhibit using lights and solar panels, where different sound clips are played when the panel is held up to the different lights.

During the workshop, he demonstrated how to recreate MIDI controllers using Arduino boards and how to use our ‘MIDI controller’ to play and manipulate sounds from Ableton music software. There were quite a lot of technical difficulties, such as switching around cables and trying different types of Arduino boards, so there wasn’t much time to experiment on my own. I only got as far as circuiting the ‘MIDI controller’ buttons and didn’t get a chance to recreate the ‘sliders’ with potentiometers. However, it was still great to learn about this new way of connecting music to my course and intriguing to imagine what projects I could incorporate this method into in the future, as playing and creating music is a favourite hobby of mine.

It was nice to learn about Frazer and his work, as it showed me that making a career out of being creative and experimental with technology and art is still possible even while staying local. As bigger cities tend to give me a lot of anxiety, and I’ve always thought I would need to move to one if I wanted my career to go in that direction.

This week, I also got started on the final project of the unit, interacting with sensors with interactive design. When exploring the creative tech labs selection of sensors, I considered using a light sensor to recreate a version of Frazer’s Arcadia project. But after some research, I realised that the sensor didn’t work exactly how I thought it would, and it would be better for me to develop my own product and use a different type of sensor.