A performance showcasing the musical instruments created during the course “Design of Interactive Musical Instruments and Accessories” — a unique course held for the first time as a collaboration between the Department of Industrial Design and the M.A. Program in Composition and Performance at the Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance.
The course focuses on the development of original musical instruments that integrate hardware, software, design, composition, and live performance.
Throughout the semester, five interdisciplinary teams—each composed of designers, composers, and performers—researched, developed, and built interactive musical instruments, sensor-based control interfaces, and composed and performed musical works based on the course’s outcomes.
The course was implemented as a professional model simulating an integrated studio environment. All projects demonstrated iterative design methodologies, principles of additive manufacturing, electro-mechanical casing, algorithm development and coding, hardware definition, and user experience design.
All systems are based on the Arduino platform for hardware connectivity and control logic and interface with Max software for real-time sound processing.
Projects presented:
- Interactive opera garment
- Digital flute
- Clarinet in a 3D space
- Graphics as sound
- Electro-mechanical tremolo accessory for guitar