BoomBox

Build a drumstick, add it to the orchestra. The instrument grows by one voice with every visitor.

BoomBox, 2015. Commissioned by the Bloomfield Science Museum Jerusalem, 2015.

I — The workConcept

BoomBox is an accumulative musical instrument. Visitors assemble an electric drumstick from an electromagnet and a hammer, and a drum from a length of PVC pipe and a lid. When they finish, they add their drum to the BoomBox and their beat joins the orchestra.

Musicians are invited to compose especially for the BoomBox, whose voice changes every day as the ensemble of homemade drums grows.

II — DocumentationPlates

BoomBox — documentation, plate 1 — Plate 01

BoomBox — documentation, plate 2 — Plate 02

BoomBox — documentation, plate 3 — Plate 03

BoomBox — documentation, plate 4 — Plate 04

BoomBox — documentation, plate 5 — Plate 05

III — The storyMaking & meaning

We wanted a musical instrument whose authorship would be impossible to assign. No single visitor could play BoomBox; every visitor could build part of it.

In a science museum the work doubles as a lesson in electromagnetism, but the lesson is not the point. The point is the moment a child hears the drum they built join a rhythm already being played by drums built by strangers.

I — The workConcept

II — DocumentationPlates

III — The storyMaking & meaning

IV — Moving imageFilms (1)