Conduct a group of human beatboxers with Incredibox!
Looking for a fun way to introduce beatboxing, DJing, sampling, or looping to your students? Check out www.incredibox.com for a fun website app that lets you control little animated beatboxers, mix them in different combinations, and record your own compositions.
Thanks to Stephanie for sharing!
Looking for a fun project to do with students exploring light, photography, projection, filmmaking, etc.? Try making a pinhole camera or turning a space into a camera obscura.
Here are some links where you can learn to make different kinds of Cameras Obscura or Pinhole Cameras:
1. Paintcan Camera: http://www.paintcancamera.com/cameraobscura.html
2. The Creators Project: http://thecreatorsproject.vice.com/blog/make-your-own-camera-obscura-instructables-how-to
3. Spoonful: http://spoonful.com/crafts/how-make-camera-obscura
4. Howcast: http://www.howcast.com/videos/387145-How-to-Transform-a-Room-into-a-Camera-Obscura
Make Zine is an awesome resource for DIY projects across the board, but they also have a variety of arts and arts-related technology projects that could easily work in the classroom.
Just a sample of projects on their site:
Moving Papercraft Toys, Egg Carton Rainbow Hats, Chalkboard Cloud Mobiles, Electronic Cards, Dyed Play Silks, and tons more!
http://blog.makezine.com/projects/
It’s also worth mentioning that there are a number of interesting articles on “lost technologies” on their blog, including how to make early optical toys/inventions like phenakistoscopes and magic lanterns.
Magic Lanterns: http://blog.makezine.com/2010/03/09/lost-knowledge-magic-lanterns/
Phenakistoscopes: http://blog.makezine.com/2008/08/10/build-phenakistoscope/
Link Spotlight: PIE- Playfully Inventing and Exploring with Digital and Other Stuff
Check out the PIE Network website for interesting project ideas around science and the arts. Some potential projects include: musical fruit, light-up dioramas, magic lanterns, mirror gardens, light drums, painting machines, musical gloves, and more. Many, but not all projects, make use of Crickets.
PIE (Playful Invention and Exploration) is an approach to using new technologies that integrates art, science, music, and engineering.
The main goal of PIE is to enable and inspire more people to create, invent, and explore — using a combination of traditional craft materials and new digital technologies.
PIE projects and workshops make use of Crickets, small programmable devices you can use to create your own musical sculptures, interactive jewelry, communicating creatures, and other playful inventions.
The PIE approach was developed through a collaboration of six museums with MIT Media Lab, with support from the National Science Foundation.
Creative Action Artist 