After the collapse of my previous concept I had to come up with an alternative which would tie into the themes of nature and music.

Using some of my early research, I wanted to create something inspired by Céleste Boursier-Mougenot’s ‘From Here to Ear’ exhibition which featured electric guitars mounted within an aviary which were played by finches in real time, creating a soundscape for people to experience as they walk around.

I felt that the idea of creating a musical instrument played by nature was still a good idea but instead opted for the more physical side of animals and movement instead of the wind. I wanted people to interact with the product in a real natural space however and so, animals would not be present as people walk past. To create a memorable experience I planned a different experience including more interactivity.

My idea was for a product/user experience called ‘Surround’ which encourages people to go out and lose themselves in the natural world through sound. A musical instrument, formed from found and natural materials such as driftwood and broken pencils is fixed in a woodland space with small speakers attached to trees pointing inwards. The shape of the instrument and its materials allow for birds and other small animals to perch or move across it producing sound which is recorded through a pick-up in the instrument. When people come to find ‘Surround’ the press of a button plays back some of the recordings from the speakers allowing the user to listen to a the sound created by the wildlife we don’t get a chance to see up close. The instrument is also fully functional, allowing the user to play along if they wish.

Now that I had a revised concept, I set about creating the final prototypes, since the instrument itself just needed a shape for the acoustic body and I only really needed to think about where all the existing violin pieces I was going to use were going to go. For my penultimate prototype, I opted to make a very clean cardboard model which resembled the final very accurately in order to work out if the sizes and shape would accommodate the neck, strings and tailpiece of the old violin.

Luckily, the model looked and felt incredibly nice and left plenty of room for all of the features necessary. I shaped the acoustic holes after sound waves and realised coincidentally that they almost created the silhouette of a leaf. Overall, I was very happy with the prototype and although I was unable to fix some of the components, due to them being needed in the final, it even functioned to an extent.

Moving forward, I started to think about branding and how it would play into the product’s nature.

I wanted a very natural craft feel to the brand, featuring little digital design and instead opting for illustrations and a hand made instruction manual. I was debating whether to use pencils or watercolour to illustrate the instruction manual and decided to try watercolour and if unsuccessful, try out pencil shaded drawing. For the logo, I felt the shape of the acoustic holes on the instrument itself looked really simple and effective, in addition to creating a feeling of unity between the product and the brand.