08 | July | 2017 | paul dodgson

The Singing Machine

Documenting the building and installation of an interactive sound generating artwork at SLOE Gallery in Manchester. UK.

The Proposal

All of us danced and drew and sang as children. Doing these things is natural to humans. When and why did we stop? Who told us we couldn’t draw, were tone deaf and had two left feet?

The Singing Machine helps people to rediscover the delight in making noise with their voices.

The Singing Machine is an interactive audio artwork where the public are intended to take part as either “Singers” or “Players”.

The “Singers” enter the booth and are invited to put on headphones and sing what they hear. The source of the sound in the headphones comes from a simple sound generator. The “Player” is outside the booth and plays the Singing Machine by turning two pitch and volume knobs on the sound generator.

For extra visual effect, a trace of the sound generator output and the sound of the “Singers” are displayed on a small oscilloscope screen inside the booth. I propose showing this screen on a TV monitor outside the booth via a small camera.

The sound of the “Singers” will be broadcast outside the booth via microphone and speakers (with a bit of reverb added to make it sound good)

The Venue