Klang2 is a gaming device consisting of smartphone technology and wooden blocks chiselled in a violin-makers’ workshop
A new musical toy, in which wooden parts dialogue with a phone app, aims to explore music, sound and language in a dynamic way.
Created by violin maker Sebastian Oberlin and media artist Adrian Rennertz, Klang2 works by turning the smartphone into an acoustic game console. It consists of 20 microchipped klang squares, chiselled out of tonewood in the violin-making workshop, which interact with a smartphone app to activate a range of sounds, including animal noises, languages, city noise, different music styles from jazz to techno to rock, and scales. These sounds form the basis of several game applications.
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‘At first we concentrated on a memory-based game [based on]…the breakdown of the question and answer [phrases] of a theme from classical music,’ says Oberlin. ‘If you match them sucessfully, the orchestral theme of the original symphony is played while the facts about the composer and the work appear on the display.’
Other games include ordering a scale in semitone steps, or, for more advanced musicians, in 45 microtonal pitches. The creators are hopeful that Klang2 will prove useful as a tool for musical education.
They are currently raising funds on Kickstarter.
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