Control A Virtual Orchestra With Just The Flick Of Your Wrist

Every time we babysat our neighbors' kids growing up, one of the tots would always engage in that creative play thing where he'd mimic an orchestra conductor with exaggerated arm-flailing, regardless of what type of music we were listening to. WHITEvoid Studio and Bertron Schwarz Frey Studio are channelling that same sense of playful imagination with a technologically-complex (but user-friendly) installation at the Mendelssohn-Bartholdy Museum in Leipzig, Germany, called Effektorium.

The piece allows users to take control of a virtual orchestra and "play" grandiose orchestral pieces, including "Concert Overture From A Midsummer Night's Dream,", Beethoven's "Symphony No. 5 (4th Movement)," and more. Visitors enter a room to find themselves at a conductor's stand with 12 speakers watching them like a loyal philharmonic group. At the stand rests an electronic note pad where they can pick the symphony, exclude certain instruments, and add others. The e-reader-like device also can adjust the color of the lights in the room, adding a special ambience to match the music.

Here's where that playful part comes in: the conductor's baton is equiped with a Leap Motion control that measures the movement of the baton. The song's tempo is controlled by the speed at which the holder moves the baton, allowing (more-or-less) chopped 'n screwed interpretations of famous arrangements. Well, at least they are beautiful remixes that can increase the reverb, speed up the refrains, and nix those pesky clarinets (Gershwin is not included in the composer options, so why add those dominating woodwinds?). Effektorium inspires a personalized orchestra experience that we could get lost in for hours.

See some photos of installation in action, and go live out your Amadeus dreams if you make it to Leipzig in the near future. In the meantime, we're going to hold a pencil and wildly wave our arm to the video of Effektorium in action.

For more information on this awesome installation, visit WHITEvoid's website here.

Images courtesy of WHITEvoid.

@zachsokol