Musical Tables

I have been meaning to post something up about the Reactable since I first heard rumour of its use throughout Bjork’s ‘Volta’ tour. I guess now is as good a time as any though, seeing as the team behind it are due to pick up an award in September at the ARS Electronica Festival for its production.

The instrument is according to it’s developers a ‘tabletop tangible multi-touch interface’ onto which a variety of objects can be placed in different orientations to produce sounds and loops. A projector below the table allows you to visually relate the sound to its tempo, pitch or one of the many other characteristics which you can alter, on your own or as part of a collaborative ensemble, as shown below -

[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KIDFuQCIvRU]

It has been used by LFO’s Mark Bell while he was touring with Bjork and has been doing the rounds at a variety of music festivals around the world. One of these, Barcelona’s Sonar Festival in 2007 was where Kieran Hebden of Fourtet first got a chance to play around on it.
Robert Moog (inventor of the Moog synthesizer) also got a chance to try out an early prototype of the Reactable a year before his death at the NIME conference in Japan in 2004. Interestingly this prototype was developed in Dublin 8, in the Europe Media Lab, home to research and innovation in the digital field until its closure in January 2005 due to disputes over funding.

[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V6Ulsu67Oog]

Most of the Reactable’s demonstrations seem pretty intricate and difficult to source out patterns behind the sounds, but if you watch a few of the more simple demonstrations you can see that it’s a lot more accessible and a lot more fun than you would think. And the best thing is it doesn’t come with a manual or instructions so you’re forced to learn as you go along.
Apparently it will be brought forth to the market at the end of this year.
Just think of all the hours and hours of incredibly expensive fun you could be having this Christmas!