Music Box

By Sarah Ee

This project was inspired by a walk through Spitalfield’s market in London, where I bought an old music box from a bric-a-brac stall. After I had fixed the broken mechanism the sound that rang out evoked a strong sense of nostalgia and I began to think about how I could incorporate sound into a story book, that could be appealing to an adult audience.

I wanted to create an immersive experience for the reader, one that transported them beyond the images on the pages of the book, to a different space where context and memory mingle.

Using the Hackspace workshop enabled me to solve this problem by experimenting with different mechanisms that would be hidden in between, or within the pages of the book. With help from the Hackspace technician, and after much trial and error, I eventually discovered that I could do this by attaching two strips of copper tape to adjacent pages, one of which was connected (and concealed) to the touch board (also concealed). The two strips would come into contact when the page was turned, thus activating the sound. The strips would then disconnect when the next page was turned, thus de-activating the sound, and activating the next track.

Hackspace opened up this project for me and I will carry the knowledge on to my Final Major Project, expanding my experience of what Illustration can be.