Bare Conductive Musical Painting

Contributors: I am Detour

Introduction

Hello everybody! I am Detour, and I am here to take you on a detour and off the traditional path of art. Since the days of Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci, traditional art has been treated as something that can be looked at but not touched. Step into any gallery in your local neighborhood, and you can see the “DON’T TOUCH” signs plastered throughout the space. This way of thinking creates an environment that disconnects the viewer from the art. This means that, in most cases, only ONE of the five senses that we can use to experience art is stimulated.

Luckily, technology came along with ways to break the archaic paradigm. In this tutorial, I will show you how I am working to take this approach in my art. More specifically, I will take you through the process I use to create interactive art that not only looks good on a wall but can be touched and played like an instrument.

Suggested Reading/Viewing

Before you get started, you should have a good understanding of the following:

• A basic understanding of Capacitors is nice but not required.
• Wikipedia article on capacitive sensing.
• How to Solder - Light soldering is required to interface the wires to the Touch Board.
• This episode of ElectriCute shows off the functaioanlity of the Bare Conductive Touch Board very well: