Like many musicians, when I finally made my peace with technology and its relationship to the music I was trying to make (initially with coal-fired 4-tracks, then 2-bit hardware and finally HAL-esque computers and tabletop devices), I became interested in exactly how far the technology could go. Many musicians and scholars have written about the liberating potential of music technology, and in many cases I agree with their positions. However, I've also seen enough "laptop shows" to recognize that sometimes the machine can trump the man, and become a screen that disguises a lack of originality or, at its worst, a lack of musicianship.
So you can understand my excitement and trepidation at seeing Reactable - an interactive tabletop that uses light and physical devices to generate synthesis and sound. Watch this video to see the action - it seems to be the kind of instrument that you could play by simply moving devices around until you found something pleasing (or not!), but unlike other music technology it seems that the more understanding you have with regard to synthesis and sound generation, the more interesting the work could be.In an ever-accelerating world where the human-and-technology inter-relationship becomes more fluid, I actually welcome intruments such as the Reactable, as it is the first device I have seen that offers a truly intuitive hardware/software interface, and breaks the mold of what an instrument should look like.
On the down-side, you pretty much have to have your own museum or be a billionaire (or both) to own one.
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