Fingertron Orchestra

Connected finger-shaped rhythm machine orchestration

The project started with the mix of core passion to connect computer-aided music performance and tangibility altogether, and one nightmare I saw, in which 100 of fingers were playing an orchestra of poly-rhythm. This idea ties to embodying physical aspect of musical ensemble - our co-presence in a space helps convey nuances among each other and generates a collective emotion together. This finger robot ensembles physically occupies the space and changes our emotion of "playing music with machine". It is way more creepy, adorable and human than any traditional rhythm machine. Fingers can also talk to each other to synchronize and play music together, and create a unique atmosphere more strongly. We made a mold of the finger and designed a custom bone structure with 3d printer and stepper motor peripheral parts. Each finger has a wifi embedded micro controller (ESP8266) and the parent node controls the timing of snaps. We also made a custom unit to recognize and input a rhythm pattern, and play back from a finger - so that the rhythm creation process becomes more intuitive.

This project has been invited to a number of art festivals and concerts and exhibited over several years: such as Spiral SICF 18, Tokyo Design Week, and Design Festa. We received a jury award at KDCC creator contest in 2017.