It’s not every day you have the chance to visit the creative workspace of “America’s most wired composer.” This week, we visited Tod Machover’s Opera of the Future group (also known as Hyperinstruments). From their website, “The scope of our research includes musical instrument design, concepts for new performance spaces, interactive touring and permanent installations, and “music toys.” It ranges from extensions of traditional forms to radical departures, such as the Brain Opera, Toy Symphony and Death and the Powers.”
In the group’s Media Lab space, we checked out — among many incredible projects — the amazing Crenellations and Excursions by Elena Jesop and the DrumTop by Akito von Troyer. These graduate projects use expressive gestures and everyday objects to transform the way music is composed and performed.
All photos by Elizabeth Woodward.