Interactive Music Turns Museum into a Funhouse

San Jose’s Tech Museum of Innovation proves that science can be as much fun as, say, any arcade game with its interactive exhibit ‘REBOOT: Music.’ You can control sounds and images by touching, gesturing, even dancing.

The exhibit, which features sound-and-visual artworks from a slew of clever artists, continues at the museum through August 17.

Cuebit, by Lyès Belhocine and Drew Detweiler, is a typical charmer. Up to four players, I guess you’d call them, can manipulate boxes to control a fast-flowing sea of color and lines that crisscross on a light table in a darkened room.  

Tim Thompson’s Space Palette, like a theremin, allows you to play it by gesturing with your hands, creating visual effects as well.

Light Orchestra, from Ka-Ping Yee and Benjamin James, uses a Kinect 3-D camera to turn human movements – dancing, perhaps – into a shimmering weave of light.

Feeling talented? The museum is hosting workshops as well. With a little ingenuity and a few microprocessors, you too could be making sweet music soon.

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