MIDI Controller Instrument Painting: Merging Visual Art with Sound

You've probably come across Makey Makey before which enables you to turn everyday objects into an input device, e.g. a MIDI controller. 

Well, sag-art (Sophia Brueckner and Eric Rosenbaum) have created something that takes Makey Makey one step forward, a touch-sensitive musical painting. The painting needs to have conductive paint (for capacitive touch sensitivity) on top of an acrylic base. Then wires are connected to the back of the painting which are input into Teensy++ 2.0 (Arduino based code) and the MIDI is then sent to a Mac Mini. And voila! Now you have your own MIDI controller instrument in a painting. 

Projects like this can potentially change how we interact with paintings in galleries, museums, even coffee shops. And for musicians, producers and DJs, perhaps it'll encourage us to explore new, more visually artistic, MIDI controller interfaces... or encourage audience interaction?

Let's go listen to paintings!

Via: Hackaday