The God Article

Abstract

The Turkish Ney is steeped in cultural significance. A traditional wind instrument, it was first played around 4500 years ago but its breath control is difficult and few around the world can teach it. Ethnomusicologist John O’Connell, Sonic Art Scholar Alexandros Kontogeorgakopoulos and User Experience Designer Anthony Mace developed for the first time digitally fabricated Ney replicas with electronic sensors and a performance visualisation application to enable learning online. With potential for breath sensing and notation in entertainment and ethnomusicology, this unusual project fuses one of the world’s oldest instruments with cutting-edge technology to break new musical ground. User-tests have confirmed have already produced very positive results. The Ney has already been exhibited in various locations in UK and in France and it was firstly exhibited during the London Design Festival 2014 at Christie’s Gallery .