Helen Leigh is an author, inventor and electronics nerd with a focus on creative use of new technologies. Her recent book, The Crafty Kid’s Guide to DIY Electronics, was called “impossible not to love” by BBC Click and she has written playful technology education materials for National Geographic, Intel Education and the Royal Court of Oman. Alongside her writing, Helen makes creative technology products with a focus on education, including her latest collaboration with Imogen Heap, MI.MU, and Pimoroni, a gesture-controlled musical instrument glove that you can sew, wire, code, and play. Helen also lectures on electronics, physical computing, and music technology at Ravensbourne University and Tileyard Studios in London. Helen lives between Berlin and Chicago.
Humans have always experimented with sound and instrument making. Radical innovations using state of the art technology in the 1500s brought us the ancestor of the modern violin and even classical artists such as Stravinsky and Debussy were considered avant guard in their time. This talk will explore some of the most radical and exciting music technologies and sound hacking artists of the modern age.
Helen Leigh is a creative technologist specialising in sound who works in Berlin and London, home to some of the most interesting music technologies and sound artists in the world. She will take you on a whistle stop tour of several strange and beautiful creations made by herself and members of the communities she belongs to, including gesture controlled musical instruments, a pipe organ made of Furbies and live coding rave culture. You’ll be able to hear what a cello sounds like after you’ve bounced the sound off the moon and watch a live performance of a pair of singing capacitive touch circuit sculptures.
Which technologies will change our musical landscapes in the future and which will become forgotten curiosities?
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