If you have ever seen a self-playing piano, and was even for a second fascinated by it (at least before learning about the mechanics that make it play), then you will sure love the following article. Blair Neal is the fellow you can see to your left, and he is the one that came up with the idea of 'Color A Sound' and built it, of course.

Constructed and programmed by Neal as an art installation, as OhGizmo informs us, this comes to show us that music indeed has no boundaries, but our imagination and creativity. The installation uses an overhead projector, and a long roll of transparency film to create a new and contemporary type of jukebox.

The user has to basically doodle the sheet music, namely the transparency film. With a set of colored markers used to make lines, dots and even more complex drawings, and a camera pointed at the projected results that translates the random drawings into music, the installation can play virtually any instrument, included with a Roland TR-808 drum machine, or just samples from a real musicbox.

You want more versatility and creativity? Mind that the manual rolling of the transparency film works in both directions, and at almost any speed. Storage-wise, this rig will retain all of your compositions, as long as you don't erase it from the transparency film. Bellow, you can see a video with Blair Neal 'playing' (with) his art installation. As many artists as I've seen in the past years, not to mention the huge number of musical instruments, I would have never thought of such a thing.

Considering this installation, just think about the common question of " Do you write your own songs?" This guy can write his own songs, and even more, he can do that live, as well as look cool doing it.


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