Simon Morris is a new media artist whose work explores urban landscapes, sounds and skateboarding.
Musique Concrete is an interactive performance piece which explores sound and the urban landscape through the physical movements on a skateboard. The result is a musical composition which transforms the skateboarder into a composer. It aims to provide an audience of all ages with a stimulating experience of new media, skateboarding, the city and sound.
Simon has mounted an interface under his skateboard which transmits data wirelessly to a laptop computer. Physical actions are detected using three sensors connected to the interface. Acceleration, turns and vibration are monitored by a photoresistor, a flex sensor and piezo sensor respectively. Using the MIDI protocol, the sensor data is transferred to a software program enabling the skateboarder to control and modify sounds directly from the skateboard.
What does this all mean? It means Simon can make music by doing tricks and movements on his skateboard. Pretty cool!
