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Music

Make Sound and Light Art on Interactive Swings

The Quebecoise project ‘The Swings: An Exercise in Musical Cooperation’ makes its way to San Jose.

After bringing interactive sidewalk tiles to the Mesa Arts Center in Arizona with Mesa Musical Shadows, Quebecoise design collective Daily tous les jours (DTLJ) returns with their ongoing project, a large-scale interactive set of musical swings. The Swings: An Exercise in Musical Cooperation, in which each swing emits the sounds of a different musical instrument, was installed at Plaza de Cesar Chavez in San Jose, California, on August 4th, and runs through October 2nd.

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While previous incarnations involved 21 swings, the current installation features 10 swings equipped with lights and sensors. In both iterations, people on swings can get a wide variety of sounds depending on their swing’s positioning. When synchronized, new melodies emerge. When swingers are out of sync, things get a bit more noisy and experimental. You can see the swings in action below:

The Swings: An Exercise in Musical Cooperation from Daily tous les jours on Vimeo.

The Plaza de Cesar Chavez installation is the last stop on The Swings tour. It will run from August 4th to October 2nd. Click here to learn more about DTLJ.

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