An artist I know has created a sculpture consisting of a several
kilometers of pink wire rolled into a giant sphere of about 90cm
diameter. She wants me to make this sculpture interactive so that it
makes sounds when people touch or make gestures over an aura around
it. I thought it might be possible to make a hollow version of this
sculpture with speakers and electronics hidden inside, and to use
the two sides of the sphere like the aerials of a theremin. Theremin sounds
aren't exactly what she wants - its the gestural interactivity that is the
important bit.Is this likely to be possible? I don't know much about what
properties aerials have to have to make them work, will any old bit of wire
do the job? Will a large hemispheric tangle of copper wire with pink
plastic insulation do the trick? How will the electric field around
this aerial behave if so? And how difficult is it likely to be for me
(someone with basic electronics experience)to build a theremin
circuit.. Have also been considering hiding infrared proximity detectors
under the wire and using them to trigger/ increase volume of sound stored on
a chipCorder device.

Any advice, links or suggestions much appreciated! I'm not an electronics
expert so I'm looking for a fairly simple solution..
Sam.


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