The generative power of Open Source in action
We add African Flair to the Music Glove and its changing audiences and forms.
We Add African Flair in STEM
SA Girl, 9, codes and redesigns the musical glove
A 9 year old girl in a MYnd STEM Workout coded and re-designed the earlier Mini-Mu Glove into a more simple and elegant form - a young girl’s vision.
This version is somewhat reminiscent of the original glove, and dispenses with the clumsy wires connecting the kids kit by Helen Hunt which has a strong and bold sense of form.
A future female engineer in the making.
Another variation made from discarded fabric.
Imogen Heap had an idea and then STEM followed!
Innovation starts with an idea to solve a need in the world.
For example, over a decade ago, Imogen Heap had an idea! This famous electronic musician living in the UK, wanted to blend more complex tech in her live performances. She particularly wanted her scripted gestures to impact the sounds of her music, so that her body became part of the performance.
Imogen’s solution? To create a musical glove that uses coded sensors to trigger sounds on response to physical gestures. She explained her motivation:
I reached a point with my live shows where I was having to take so much equipment onstage with me in order to have a kind of fluid performance, that it was literally weighing me down. … And then I realized that technology had reached a point where you could use an actual physical glove to be able to catch your voice by closing your fist and relate gesture to action, which got me very excited.
Next, The University of Brighton used Mi-Mu’s Open Source tech in It's an Extraordinary Circus Project .
The project researched digital enhancement of live performances by hosting ‘a series of developmental laboratories for participating artists led by leading scientists and technicians including Professor Kelly Snook, former NASA scientist and co-founder of the Mi Mu collective of specialist musicians, artists, scientists and technologists developing cutting-edge wearable technology for the performance and composition of music and co-inventor of the Mi Mu gloves which have been used by Imogen Heap, Arianna Grande, and Chagall amongst others …’
Collaboration with Helen Leigh took the glove to DIY Makers for Kids
Helen Leigh, creative technology designer and author, took lead development on a collaborative project with Imogen Heap, Pimoroni and the MI·MU glove team, ‘to create a friendly, simple and fun crafty coding experience for young kids.’
Six months later a much lower tech version Mini-MU: DIY kit for kids was being sold in Adafruit and Pimoroni stores to inspire kids to make their own musical glove. This glove uses simple felt for a glove you sew in one of three sizes, coding a Micro:bit microcontroller, attached via alligator clips to a Pimoroni speaker. An accelerometer read the position of the hand to play music or sounds.
Media spreads the words about DIY music gloves getting kid friendly
October 12, 2018: Peter Kirn writes about: ‘The Mini.mu is a musical glove that can get young people coding and crafting and making music and electronics work. And it’s off to a simple, elegant, and affordable start, courtesy artist Imogen Heap and designer Helen Leigh.’
‘It’s one thing for music stars to try out bleeding edge technology and explore performance using gestural interfaces. It’s another thing for kids to tackle computing and electronics – and to make teaching tools that serve them. But a new musical glove design could reach a far wider audience.’ … more
An original OpenUK Competition 2019 was held in groups to promote open source learning. Groups of 4 kids collaborate to build a MiniMU Glove - a make-it-yourself kit. This is a collaborative project in teams of 4.
OpenUK Competition - due to COVID-19 - now offered a 10 week fun animated course from end of the May with a final competition in September. This new UK competition for kids at Key Stage 3 or equivalent replaced our original competition due to the Pandemic and inspired the development of our kids course. … more
