Musical Ping Pong and Other Innovations from Berklee on Display at Sónar 2015

June 9, 2015

Berklee students, faculty, and alumni will participate at Sónar (June 18-20, 2015), presenting their original projects at Sónar+D, the festival’s conference exploring the relationship between creativity and technology. Innovative student work will be on display at the Berklee Innovation Lab exhibition at the Sonar+D MarketLab, where creative laboratories, universities, and companies from around the world will present the year’s most outstanding technology initiatives.

Designed by Berklee student Xander Arnold of San Diego, California, “Flex Sleeves” integrates medical-grade sensors to convert arm movements into data, literally putting the potential of a recording studio into a singer’s hands and arms. “The Sing Song Table,” designed by student Luke Dennis of Boston, Massachusetts, uses a powerful synthesizer and sequencer to turn every bounce of a ping pong ball into a personalized, real-time musical event for players and spectators alike. Arnold and Dennis are students in Berklee’s Music Production, Technology, and Innovation master’s degree program.

For more details on these student projects, click here.

In addition, Berklee faculty and alumni were selected to participate in the Sónar+D Music Hack Day, themed “Wearables and Music Performance,” on Thursday, June 18 from 10 a.m.-12 p.m. and Friday, June 19 from 10:00 a.m.–6:00 p.m. Berklee alumnus and faculty member Pierluigi Barberis, alumna and current fellow Alayna Hughes, and professor Ben Houge are among the 100 hackers chosen to develop prototypes of devices and applications in just 24 hours that will shape how music is listened to, composed, performed, distributed, and discovered in the future.

This is the third consecutive year Berklee has participated in the annual international festival of advanced music and new media art, which has been held in Barcelona since 1994.