This may be the coolest instrument since the theremin, the hands free instrument that manipulated waves of energy to create a ghostly, almost human sound. (Please see, for reference, 1950's sci fi films [The Day The Earth Stood Still], and the collected work of Portishead.) The Reactable (react+table) is " a multi-user electro-acoustic music instrument with a tabletop tangible user interface."
What does this mean? It means that there is a table, and there are geometric shapes that you can arrange on the table to create and manipulate sounds. The Reactable is, in short, a deconstructed synthesizer that looks like it could have been manufactured by Playskool. The whole thing is controlled via a camera that measures each object's realationship to the other, and so on and so forth. It's all terribly fascinating, and, frankly, beyond my brain's capacity for comprehension, but the website provides a brief tutorial that explains it all. (Further, any explanation provided here would be cribbed directly from aforementioned tutorial.)
Most prominently, Bjork has employed the Reactable during her current Volta tour, and images of the instrument in use were projected on screens during her set at this year's Coachella festival. The Reactable may be manipulated, simultaneously, by several different users, and the interplay of the objects to each other is displayed on the surface of the table, which may also be manipulated by touch; adjusting volume, filters, samples, etc. It's difficult really, to put into words the feelings that this instrument inspires, other than saying, simply, "this is the future".
Learn for yourself: visit the website
(Be sure to watch the youtube videos to see the Reactable in action; fascinating stuff.)
(image courtesy the reactable website)
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