An inclusive Toy/musical instrument using physical movement.

Our initial aim was to find a physical way of representing music but we flipped it so the physical movement altered the sound.

Piezo-electric sensors triggered the idea of transforming touch into audio. But because of my interest in Experience design and education. I felt we needed a flowing, continuous experience.

Professional, or even naturally talented musicians spend years mastering the discrete ‘key’ operation of traditional instruments. When this becomes second nature they can feel and flow with the music and the pleasure of the experience forms a positive feedback loop. For new, inexperienced or neurodivergent players, the experience can be more challenging - focusing on the practicality of playing for a long time before experiencing the reward of ‘flow state’. The aim of Sound Playground was not to change the learning curve, but to by-pass it through play.

It would have been simple to use the piezotechnology in ways that mirrored traditional instruments so we utilised the rolling ball, inspired by our research into “glide typing”. Based on a simple children’s toy but shifting the physical metaphor from ‘Playing’ in the musical sense to ‘Playing’ in the developmental sense.