Next month is the beginning of a series of workshops aimed at children that we are running at Furtherfield Gallery in North London. One of the tools which we will be working with is a MaKey MaKey, with which we’ll be teaching our participants how to make their very own musical instrument or game.
We also have an afternoon workshop for adults at [ space ] on February 23rd where we’ll use MaKey MaKey to prototype physical art installations.
A MaKey MaKey is an open piece of hardware perfect for teaching people of any age how to create exciting and playful interactions between objects and a computer. The device plugs into your machine and then using crocodile clips you can substitute the usual mouse click, spacebar and arrow keys with things such as fruit and veg, pencil drawings and even play dough. Below are some examples of our favourite uses of the device:
For those of you who are very much into your crafts, especially felting, this is for you! Adafruit have a video showing how to make a felted banana to use with your MaKey MaKey as a musical instrument:
On the musical theme, the MaKey MaKey can also be combined with Bare Conductive’s paint to make musical paintings:
While MaKey MaKey can be used for lots of silly projects, it can also be used to add a new dimension to a piano performance.
Using a Graphite pencil and the MaKey MaKey you can make a control pad for a game:
The MaKey MaKey can even be used as a fitness tool
and as a cat toy!
For more information about our workshops or for advice on using the MaKey MaKey please email us at [email protected] – we hope to see you there!