The workshop at close of play today:

Some pictures from around the workshop, taken by James Dunbar:

The Toob has been testing both Brian and myself recently.  There have been sporadic bursts of promise that seem to have come crashing down one way or another.  It’s always a case of reminding yourself that this is in fact part of the design process – it’s a case of trying out ideas until one works, and you do only need one core idea to work.

So I’ve been working on a project to create a chromatic whistle for roughly six years.  It’s a typically long and protracted process for designing a musical instrument, but like so many of the things I’ve been involved with in the last few years, it might be taking longer than expected but it is actually turning out better than expected.  The instrument, which is likely to be called a ‘Toob’, is based on a new key system which leaves the initial tone hole layout and architecture of the whistle in tact – making it easy for musicians to adopt.  At the moment, it exists as a working prototype (it works, but it looks rubbish!), but there are still a few challenges to be faced in terms of the making and refinement.

Until now I’ve kept the design ‘under my hat’ so-to-speak – this is certainly the ‘traditional’ way of approaching innovation – show somebody your ideas and they will steal them!  But watching the effect that several big companies with this approach are having, and the recent emergence of collaborative working methods like open source, has caused me to think that there’s a huge amount to be gained from throwing the gates open, documenting our progress, and inviting feedback – so we can harness the expertise of the music community to make the best possible musical instrument we can.  It’s an approach which will stand in complete contrast to the ‘romantic’ vision of a instrument maker, shut away, tirelessly working to perfect their ‘masterpiece’.

In addition to myself, designer Brian Loudon (http://loud1design.co.uk) will be collaborating on the project and it’ll be introduced in more detail and documented on the mk blog.  It offers the opportunity for anyone to get involved with the design and testing of a next generation musical instrument.  I for one am excited by what we might come up with.

For the first time in a while the incubator got reved up when Father of schmo mailed me through a sketch for an idea.  A clever use of laminating materials which can also be seen on a chair, created by the Danish designer Mathias Bengtsson.  I first spotted this chair a number of years ago on the design museum website and it got me thinking about where else this idea might work.  Father of Schmo pointed out the strikingly obvious  potential to make 3D maps and we hope to develope this idea in the coming months, starting with the Scottish mountain Suilven.  It struck me this idea could not be displayed more vividly than with the terraced Paddy Fields of East and South Asia and to a slightly lesser extent at Machu Picchu.  I have been exploring with the use of lamination in musical instrument design for a while but more on this later….