STEPHEN

SUMMERS

Stephen Summers

INTERVIEW

56

HACKSPACE How did Noisy Toys

get started?

STEPHEN SUMMERS It pretty much

started as an educational project and

it still is, at the heart of it. I’m a teacher

and the initial idea of Noisy Toys was

going into schools and doing workshops

with kids about sounds, crossing over

between music and physics – trying

to get the exact middle point of those

two subjects, which is often missed

with the crossing over between creative

and technical subjects. Since then, it’s

shuffled into a few different things. We

still do the workshops, we do larger-scale

installations, and science busking.

HACKSPACE Science busking?

SS Yeah, it’s not a term I was

familiar with myself, it’s just

something events use. I don’t

know about it though, because

I’ve mentioned it to some

people and they say, “are you

charging on the spot?” and I say

“no.” It’s a walkabout, basically.

Interactive walkabout... we

stop somewhere, we do nose

testing. It’s not a performance in that the

audience is passive – it’s something they

partake in.

HACKSPACE Nose testing?

SS Ha, yes. Nose testing is a simple

conductivity experiment. There’s lots

of them around, but ours is the best!

You basically hold one contact, another

person holds another, you squeeze their

nose, and the system goes ‘brrrrrrup!’

Some people are a bit scared to do it, and

we play with that. If they’re confident, we

tell them that it hurts a bit... you know,

there’s a bit of psychology in it.

You get whole groups – family groups.

You can extend the circuit and get

everyone holding hands and squeezing

noses in turn. You can go into basic

circuity: the finger on the nose is a

switch and we usually have a few spoons

• a wooden and a plastic spoon. A carrot

ideally. If it’s an urban space, we try and

test dogs as well. The muzzle and the

paw works, but not the fur. It’s a bit of fun

with some conductivity in it.

We came up with that because the big

installations are a pain to set up – they

take all day. The [nose-testing] buggy –

we lift out of the van, switch it on, and

we go. We really like doing that. It’s the

smallest thing we do.

Here at Maker Faire UK, every day

we’re doing Bass In Your Face shows.

This is something I developed for the

Big Bang Faire. I’m only doing a mini-

show. It’s ground-level, and again it’s

not a passive show. People come up at

various stages and put their hands in a

speaker cone, and feel 1000 watts of bass

vibrations through their fingers. We do

it with corn-flour, and people can trigger

the bass with the hard drives. It’s a good

show, and it’s also quite interactive.

There’s Scavengers, [a programme] in

schools. It’s about unmaking computers

• taking the electronics apart, and then
  upcycling the bits to, in our case, little
  noise machines or acoustic instruments


• learning about upcycling in the
  process. Looking at what’s inside the
  magic boxes (such as computers), rather
  than just seeing it as a magic box that
  does stuff. You take things apart and
  learn how they work. There’s also a lot of
  sustainability with that one. You learn
  about where the materials come from,
  and where they go to afterwards. There’s
  a focus on that.
  The big installation is called the
  Acousatron. That’s something we’ve been
  doing for years. We developed some of

that with the Manchester Robot Orchestra

guys [as seen on page 18]. We’ve got

mechanised acoustic instruments, like

pianos and violins. You press buttons and

spin little fans, and it strums the strings.

Those are the four main things really.

HACKSPACE How do you build your stuff?

SS It’s always as straightforward as it

can be, so it’s usually much, much more

simple than people expect, especially

the installation. People come round the

back and expect some complex system,

but most of it is a rubber band and a

microphone. That’s my ideal level to

go for – a rubber band with a contact

microphone plugged into a PA

system. That’s great. If I can get

away with everything at that

level of tech, I will. The moment

I want to do something and

that level won’t do it, I might

introduce a little more, but I

will only introduce more when

I have to do something that I

can’t achieve otherwise. There’s

very little digital technology. It

evolves. We keep it as simple

as possible. It’s pretty much all

analogue acoustic. Amplified acoustics,

mechanical using a lot of upcycled bits

and bobs.

HACKSPACE Have you got any

tips for finding bits to upcycle into

musical instruments?

SS Yes! Especially the bass drives! I’ve

been promoting these things for years,

and I can’t believe I don’t see them

everywhere! I’ve still never seen anyone

else use them, but apparently someone

has. A hard drive is stripped down, and

some leads are soldered onto it, and it

makes the most amazing bass generator.

I’ve done a YouTube video on how you can

do that (hsmag.cc/WCuUAm). I love ’em.

You just spin them, and amazing bass

comes out.

The one thing musically most useful

for me is the contact microphone. I use

them a lot – I’m currently studying

”

There’s very little digital

technology. It evolves.

We keep it as simple as

possible. It’s pretty much

all analogue acoustic

”