The Slinky Metronome is now fully operational. I gave a presentation and demonstration of it in Mechanisms on Thursday. The Slinky Metronome is a Sociable Object. It keeps a steady beat, based upon the period of the Slinky spring, and broadcasts that beat out via 802.15.4 radio to the entire ITP floor. Electronic musical instruments, dynamic artworks and kinetic sculptures can all pick up the broadcast beat and synchronize with each other for an orchestrated performance. The Slinky Metronome is human-operated, so the beat it broadcasts is rooted in tangible physical interactions. Now that it’s working, the next step is to collaborate and share sample code with a few instrument and kinetic projects. This is a project I’m looking forward to exploring more in the fall.
