Play music with rocking chairs at Glasgow exhibition

A BRAND new exhibition in Glasgow shows how rocking chairs can be used to produce music.

Dutch artists/composers Rob Van Rijswick, left and Jeroen Strijbos at Glasgow Centre for Contemporary Arts (CCA), Glasgow. Picture: Hemedia

The exhibition features a set of specially designed rocking chairs which respond to the user’s swaying motion by making music.

Each user will experience an interactive, personalised performance based on how they sway back and forth.

It is the result of complex sound technology that includes a cylinder underneath each chair that contains an iPhone, speaker and sensory equipment.

Katie Anderson, 26, from Dumfries, tries out the installation. Picture: Hemedia

The installation was designed by Dutch artists and composers Rob van Riswijck and Jeroen Strijbos.

Rob said: “The idea behind it is that you can rock the chairs and when you rock them, you will influence the music you hear in the space.

“We created the chairs, we created a cylinder underneath, where there is a speaker and sensoring equipment, which senses how you rock and with this rocking you change the sounds.

“The nice thing is that you can influence each other’s rocking so it’s really an ensemble of rocking chairs.”

Visitor James Roberts, 36, of Glasgow, said: “It’s very relaxing. It’s almost like rocking yourself to sleep.

“The chairs go really far back. It’s like being upside down.

“The ambient music it makes is really nice.”

The Rocking Chairs 2015 installation, premiering in the UK during the Sonica 2015 festival, is on show at Glasgow’s Centre for Contemporary Arts (CCA).

Sonica is a programme dedicated to world-class sonic arts and the festival acts as a performance for emerging British talent and international artists.

The festival, which first took place at Glasgow’s Tramway venue in 2012, will feature artists from Belgium, Australia and Brazil among other countries.

The Rocking Chairs 2015 installation will be at the CCA until November 29.