SMS Sixth Graders Discover that Writing Can Sing

Students of Dr. Jessica Slotwinski's Exploring Music course were visited last week by artist Terry Dame, a composer, multi-instrumentalist, instrument builder, and educator. Ms. Dame is currently on faculty in the MFA Computer Art and BFA Film Departments at the School of Visual Arts and the Creative Media Department at Marymount Manhattan College in NYC. She tours nationally, performing and teaching workshops on instrument building with recycled objects and interactive technologies to all ages.

Ms. Dame explained to the students how she has been building instruments for many years, a result of her love for making things combined with the desire to be original. Since the beginning she incorporated a recycling component in her work by building instruments out of found objects. One large instrument she demonstrated for the students was built from a bike pump and parts of old instruments. Not only were the parts found, but so in a sense were the musical elements themselves, such as NASA recordings made in outer space. This instrument is an example of how she could achieve her objectives of having instruments that are interactive and also digital, through the use of Arduino. Arduino is an open-source electronics platform based on hardware and software . It receives inputs from many sensors and affects its surroundings by controlling lights, motors, and other actuators. Ms. Dame showed how her instrument could actually be played with a "light touch" - depending on the presence or absence of light, sound is
generated.

Her final demonstration involved her "singing pencils" instrument, which uses graphite and resistance to create sounds. Movement of the pencil and completing of the circuit resulted in the emission of various sounds.

What Ms. Dame has learned through her work is that one should not be afraid to make a mistake, which may even result with in something you never anticipated.

Student Eli Cohen described Ms. Dame's work to be "cool and unexpected." He was amazed at how a simple pencil and graphite could be used to make beautiful music. Alan Xiong found it so interesting and unique to be an inventor. The opportunity to hear about Ms. Dame's work was the perfect segue to the next assignment for the students, making their own instruments using a device like the Arduino. Stay tuned!