NIME update - conceptual work

This week we took a step back from our lovely NIME to work on our concept a little. We're pretty happy with the physical structure as of right now, although of course there's room for improvement. The big challenge we've been trying to tackle is the "game" aspect that we hope will increase the appeal of the performance. We also want to incorporate feedback from showing our prototype in class and add some different sounds to the piece.

The current plan is to build four receptacles out of plexi with different percussive surfaces/objects in them -- which we're salvaging from our personal trash. Then we can use a Twister-esque spinner to add a goal to the madness -- try to get a certain type of balls into the selected container. In addition, the spinner opens up the possibility of more interaction with others - someone else (perhaps an audience member) could spin it - or maybe we'll elect to retain control. This also adds some organization and the possibility for score-keeping if we want to make it a competition - unsure yet. The "winner" may get to inflict something on the "loser" like spray her with silly string or whip cream or something else messy. We'll keep fleshing this out as we write our performance plan over the next week.

In another attempt to increase the complexity of the piece, we're also playing around with adding tubing of some sort to add to the amount of time the balls are "in play" and making sound as well as contribute to the visual effects. We've had people mention Rube Goldberg machines to us over and over again, and although we continually explain that we're not building one, we may end up incorporating that in some way - perhaps having various balls run different "courses" or set off subsequent actions. I've had flashbacks to my childhood of playing with Marble Works -- an awesome toy from the 80s, which I've asked my parents to attempt to locate in the depths of the attic -- so something along those lines maybe? It may seem that we have a lot of loose ends at this point, but we feel like we have so much of the actual building work done that we can afford to spend some time trying out various ideas.

In the next week, our goal is to build the receptacles out of plexi and outfit them with different percussive surfaces as well as try adding tubing. We still need to work on the mechanics of the release mechanisms, so that's near the top of the list. Other than that, we need to put in some quality play time with it to get a better feel for what's fun - both to do and to watch. Look for us in the shop a lot over the next week or so and watch out for balls going everywhere!