Sound Automata at Makers Music Festival

This past weekend, we had a great online workshop at the Maker Music Festival building sound automata out of everyday materials. We’ve been inspired by some automata examples from the Cabaret Mechanical Theatre, LEGO sound machines from the Tinkering Studio and our own scrappy cardboard collage automata for this activity.

We’ve been expanding the materials set for the cranky contraption automata machines to adapt to whatever people have at home. The main elements are a base (small box, wood block or TP tube), wire (could be a unrolled paper clip), and connector piece (foam, rubber eraser, piece of cork). As well for this theme, we asked participants to collect sound making elements like bells, ridged surfaces from takeout containers, wine glasses and pot lids).

Here’s the basic model for a sound automata that uses a cardboard box from a laundry soap, boba straws as guides and a foam pieces as a connector to make the jingle bell sound. While the plastic straws work well as guides, they are a little bit less flexible than wire and onces glued, their position can’t be changed.

Here are a couple other ideas for how you can make a sound automata. For the first one, I used a toilet paper tube and two squares of cardboard as a base. I like the way it works because as the zip tie strikes the plastic lid, the lid also moves back and forth which changes the sound. For the second rhythm machine I took inspiration from Tinkering Studio artist Michael Fong who created an ingenious way to make sounds with straws and skewer sticks on a cam.

These projects can be extended with the use of gear motors or continous servo motors programmed with a microcontroller like a micro:bit. Adding in motorized elements brings in a lot of new ideas and possibilities for these sound making machines.

During the session it was really fun to see makers like @jeUX_sais_FAIRE and @lawcant building along using whatever they could find around their house. Some interesting materials that they used included a pen tube for the crankshaft holder, a desk bell and a bottle cap handle. One of the best things about tinkering at home is that even after the workshop, participants can continue to experiment with the materials and create new designs.

Thanks much to Maker Music Festival for inviting me to join in such a great event and looking forward to more musical sound experiments.