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MUSIC IMPOSSIBLE

Interactive Audio Installation   |   2011

Person illuminated by intense red stage lights

Music Impossible - A sound and light installation at the Old Fruitmarket in Glasgow, UK: funded by Glasgow Arts as part of Family Fun Week, a series of exhibits, installations, and performances.

Music Impossible is an interactive audio-visual experience combining multiple fixed lights with custom-made sensors and software constructed in Max/MSP.

As you move through the light fields, different sounds are played, creating an performative and playful take on the iconic ‘Mission:Impossible’ movement through a restricted space.

When the analog pin registered a level above the ambient light level in the room, but below the direct focus of the beam of light, it started playback. If the beam was still broken after completing the soundfile, it then played that same file backwards at half speed, before pulling another sample from the bank if the beam was still interrupted.

Each of the eight light beams and their accompanying light-dependent resistors fed data into an Arduino, which triggered a Max/MSP patch that would play a sound file from the associated sample bank in the speaker it was assigned to.

It was hosted by Glasgow City Halls twice, on the second occasion using underwater sound designed by Matthew Collings.

Produced by Glasgow Arts at Old Fruitmarket

Artistic Direction by Svend Brown

Hardware and Sound Design by Matthew Collings, Jung-In Jung, Brendan F Doyle​

Max Programming by Martin Parker

Digital Ruins, Forgotten Future
00:00 / 05:53

©  Matthew Collings 2025, Design: Elin Svennberg

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