From 20.03.-22.03.2019 MotionComposer attended the Soundform Symposium hosted by EUCREA. The Symposium in Hamburg, Germany was a gathering of many activists in the music therapy/social work field with a focus on music inclusion. The goal is to allow everybody, including people with severe disabilities to express themselves through music. The MotionComposer as well as many other cutting edge developments were demonstrated throughout the weekend at Soundform.
The Symposium featured a variety of digital and acoustic instruments, which allow people with different abilities to create music. Among many others, the MotionComposer had a booth that featured the MC 2.0, and we allowed many different types of people to try out the device. Check out a picture of the MotionComposer 2.0 at the symposium in the picture above! People were taken away; with the wave of an arm piano scales and many unique sounds were played. Even many people in wheelchairs got to play music for the first time! It encouraged even the most shy of people to begin jumping from side to side.
On Friday and Saturday many various instruments and technologies were presented with the theme of inclusion. There were also some notable performances; John Kelly is a disabled musician who represented Drake music and blew the crowd away with a rocking performance. With his signature instrument “the Kellycaster”, (a custom guitar built specifically for Johns unique set of arms) John Rocked the crowd with his own original punk songs. Afterwards the lights dimmed, and Parasonic (the swedish duo) took the stage. As they begin to tell their emotional story, the room fell silent, and the music spoke. Soundform Symposium was a great platform for the MotionComposer and for all people interested in Music inclusion.
Link to the EUCREA soundform webpage: https://www.eucrea.de/index.php/soundform
Link to John Kelly and DRAKE MUSIC page: https://www.drakemusic.org/technology/instruments-projects/the-kellycaster/