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Reclaimed, Recycled and Scavenged Musical instruments and Noise makers.

27.7.15

The Hummingbird @ the Tate Modern


One of my newest creations that I developed at my time at machinesroom is The Hummingbird. It's a twitter - controlled instrument that I recently showcased at the Tate modern as part of the Turbine Festival.



It consists of a series of 8 motors that play 2 strings each in a randomised sequence. The motors were from old tape players and the strings from bike brake cable.

Every time I get sent a tweet, the sequence changes! So a brand new, completely unique melody is generated.



It uses a raspberry pi for its brains which controls the on/off signals to a bank of 8 small relays.

It was incredibly loud during the festival so was very hard to hear it being played. A few videos were taken of it in action though:


I owe a MASSIVE thanks to Tim Yates and Saif Bunni of Hackoustic for the invite and the help!