Global Sounds 2013 from Rebecca Gischel on Vimeo.

Last month German designer Rebecca Gischel took over a square in Edinburgh with her Global Sounds project. A series of pyramids were installed, each programmed to play different instrumental sections of a song when interacted with. The more pyramids interacted with at once, the richer the song produced, with only full participation resulting in the full song.  

Reminiscent of (if less cacophonous than) the now iconic piano stairs in Volkswagen’s Fun Theory initiative, the project is a nice example of emerging forms of direct, interactive engagement with our cities. And as social icing on the cake, Gischel’s requires collaboration for full effect, much like many of the playable cities projects from PAN Studio (who spoke at Protein’s Civic Futures Forum earlier this year).

The composition, which was written especially for the project, included a mix of instruments symbolic of different cultures such as the djembe and didgeridoo, which are often not heard together, to allude to the multicultural richness migrants have brought to the UK and Europe.