Claviiiiiier, Prototype #1

Research and technological development: Félix Vanneste, under the supervision of Samuel Bianchini, Christian Duriez, Kanty Rabenorosoa and Pierre Renaud, as part of a postdoctoral fellowship within the research group Reflective Interaction d’EnsadLab (laboratory of École des Arts Décoratifs, Paris, PSL University) with the support of PEPR O2R.
Design collaboration: Damien Comolli-Miramont

Description:
Six small black modules resemble the keys of a musical keyboard. At regular intervals, a key lifts, bends and twists before settling back down with a tap on its base. At the base of these modules, the mechanism that powers and controls them is fully visible and audible: the entire electronic and pneumatic system is enclosed in a transparent box, and its valves make resonant sounds as they open and close to release air – like a new kind of wind instrument. Thanks to these small artificial muscles, each outfitted with foam elements whose structures have been programmed to dictate their distortion, Claviiiiiier composes using material and movement. Part art installation, part technology demo, this first prototype explores the potential of increasingly promising soft robotics.