Monday, May 12, 2008

Where's the Sound Lens?

Toshio Iwai has been a very busy guy.

A few years back Nintendo released the psychedelic game for DS Electroplankton to a confused universe. It's an inteactive piece of art mixed with a game and a musical instrument much in the same style of his marvel the Tenori-On which has finally started selling in limited editions worldwide.

The "game" has no winning or losing, just like real life and it suggests a interesting possibility of creating art that functions and is interactive to the point of being a virtually passive element in the process. Meanwhile the new and more expensive Tenori-On takes a similar role but in the form of a MIDI step sequencer with an amazingly elegant interface. Both seem to be the toys of the future but specifically for the musically inclined.

I have been inspired enough to wonder and indeed hope that the project called the Sound Lens will also appear in the form of a usuable tool and work of art.

Thank you Toshio Iwai for seeing the space in between the lines of instrument and entertainment, tool and toy.