Jen Lewin: Laser Harps

Local Boulder “interactive sculptist”, Jen Lewin, will be showing at this years Burning Man– with an artist grant to create 3 fully interactive outdoor laser harps. I had a chance to check out one of her laser harps when it was installed at the Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art, and was impressed with the idea. The harps are a set of laser beams, and simply moving underneath the laser-beams create an individual tone– All that kept me from really “loving the idea” off the bat was the lack of room for someone to truly interact with the sculpture– run around it, and have some room to breathe with it. Her new renderings show 3 full sized arcs, with room to run around, literally tagging lasers to create your own, personal orchestra. What’s next for these harps? I’d like to see a way for the user to choose and change the sound palettes– as opposed to being stuck with the default tones.