The language of music

Against the backdrop of rapid urbanization and growing metro culture which has created vulnerability of the traditional artistes, the project presents a compelling vision for indigenous design, the redesign of new economies centred on innovation, well being and compassion. The project emphasise values like, How the wisdom of the past can be made accessible to people.

The project presents both traditional and new instruments based on Indian sitar, Burmese saung harp, Thai xylophone, Korean kayagum, Chinese guzheng and pipa, Vietnamese dan tranh, Javanese and Balinese gamelan, chanting and others. New instruments with embedded computation demonstrate interactions through gesture, touch, pull, movement, gaze and kinesthetic action. In addition, through responsive computing, people by their position, gesture, and movements control musical events in the exhibition environment.

The museum landscapes exhibition builds on a series multimedia museum works, showing intersections between traditional and modern art, design and technology, such that the results help both traditional and modern societies. The works show that the wisdom of traditional communities can positively negate the homogenising aesthetics of modern media technology.

When: On till 16 January 2014
Where: National Museum