listening tables
The Horniman Museum in South London possesses one of the most important collections of musical instruments in the UK. 0ver 1600 of their finest and most fragile instruments are installed in the World Music Gallery.
To make the collection more accessible and to connect the instruments to the museum’s library of sound recordings, we designed the software for an interactive music installation enabling the public to “play the collection”.
950 instruments are mounted on a 28 metre long installation wall. In front of this there are 3 interactive scanning tables, each with a map of the adjacent wall projected down onto it. The visitor can spatially correlate an instrument on the wall with its animated image on the table. Visitors navigate by activating control buttons set into the tabletop, selecting instruments, and listening to their sounds while reading about the people and cultures who invented and played them. The interaction is simple and intuitive. It gives the instruments a voice, connecting the sounds they make with the history of their makers.