client

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the brief

The Horniman Museum in South London possesses one of the most important collections of musical instruments in the UK. 0ver 1600 of their finest and most fragile instruments are now installed in the recently opened World Music Gallery, designed by Ralph Appelbaum Associates. Part of Appelbaum's brief from the museum was to make the collection more accessible and to connect the instruments to the museum's library of sound recordings. Appelbaum asked rom and son to collaborate in designing and implementing the software for an interactive music installation which could make sense of the collection and, most importantly, bring it to life, enabling the public to "play the collection".

the project

950 instruments are mounted on a 28 metre long installation wall. In front of this there are 3 interactive scanning tables, each with a map of the adjacent wall projected down onto it. The visitor can spatially correlate an instrument on the wall with its animated image on the table. Visitors navigate left and right by activating control buttons set into the tabletop, selecting instruments, and listening to their sounds while reading about the people and cultures who invented and played them. The interaction is simple and intuitive. It gives the instruments a voice, connecting the sounds they make with the history of their makers.

launch

technologies

director 3D

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