This is a prototype of an interactive installation tested at the Pittsburgh Children’s Museum. The goal of this project was to incite a sense of musical wonder in children and try to demonstrate a correlation between visual notation and aural structure through pattern arrangement. The work is comprised of a wheel with 3 notched dials that emits its own tone. The dials can be adjusted in relation to each other to make different sequences of sound and the wheel can be turned manually at different speeds.

The prototype consists of photo-resistors to sense when a notch travels past, LEDs to convey the information that the notch moving has been sensed, a transistor to amplify electrical power for the speakers, an Arduino Uno with the code for emitting specific tones , a voltage regulator and a potentiometer for fine tuning.

When we tested the work at the museum, it was fascinating to observe the unique personality of each child emerged when they engaged with the wheel. Some obsessed over the arrangement of the notches while others turned the wheel as hard as they could to see if it would break. Overall, the kids understood the correlation and had fun with it. For the next iteration, the dials could be more customizable for the kids to use it more like an instrument.