Jackson Enyeart-

Polyphonic Fun is an escape course for children in Reyhanli, Turkey that explores the concept of sound through body movement and heightening one’s senses by taking others away.

The project is an escape course for children in Reyhanli, Turkey who are in need of a communal playspace. The first part of the escape course is a pitch-dark tunnel maze where children must rely on sound to navigate their way out of. When they pull a string on the floor of the tunnel, the bell in front of them will ring. By following the bells to the end, the kids escape the maze and reach an open area where tilting pads hang from ropes. The maze is currently being worked on by students at the Karam House. When the children jump onto pressure points on the pads, an orchestra of sounds will be produced using recordings of different instruments such as strings, brass, and wind instruments. To make these sounds, one will use an Arduino, accelerometer, and Max MSP. The accelerometer measures the coordinates [?] of the tilt and note of the instrument will change with the tilt.  Each pad will use one instrument playing up to three different notes. This playground structure will act as a small orchestra. The children will explore  sound and the creation of music through body movement.

Lina Huang-

Suspended musical balance boards designed to allow young Syrian refugees to use their whole bodies to explore sound and create music.

Polyphonic Fun is designed to enhance a temporary playground created for young Syrian refugees in Reyhanli, Turkey out of a series of wooden cubes. Implementing musical play structures will encourage children to explore sound through the movement of their bodies. Each suspended balance board in the set plays sounds to resemble different instruments when the pressure sensor attached is triggered. When children step onto the board, the pressure sensor triggers the musical note C and plays notes of the C Major arpeggio based on how it is tilted. To improve the original version, each balance board now has a wooden hemisphere attached underneath to enhance the stability. Ropes run through the center of the boards to act as handles. The sounds are programmed in MaxMSP,  which has a larger sound library with more pleasant sounding notes. An accelerometer under the board reads the coordinates of the board's orientation to trigger note changes based on how it is tilted. 

Incorporating music into a playground attracts and exposes children to the idea of music. The musical playground structure allows children to interact more with their bodies and exposes them to the sounds of a variety of musical instruments from a young age. The design of the structure nudges children to experiment with their sense of balance and becomes a memorable musical and physical experience.