Pagophone

2



(Pagophone performance)



(Explanation of pagophone and context with H 2 Orchestra)

The pagophone makes sound from ice (i.e. from H 2 O in its solid-state), when struck, rubbed, or manipulated, usually with rubber mallets.

"Pago" is Greek for ice, and "phone" is Greek for "sound", so "pagophone" means "ice sound", in much the same way that "xylophone" means "wood sound" ("xylo" is Greek for "wood").

This instrument was invented by Steve Mann, who also coined the term "pagophone" to describe it, based on proper Greek etymology. It is intended to add a unique musical texture to the other H 2 O-based instruments that he invented, such as the hydraulophone.

There are two main preferred embodiments of this invention:

In one embodiment, sound transducers (acoustic pickups) in one or more pieces of ice pickup sound when the ice is struck by mallets, rubbed, or otherwise manipulated;

In another embodiment, the electrical pickups are mounted in the mallets or ice scrapers themselves, and a separate input device, similar to a guitar effects pedal, is used to post-process the ice-generated sound. Typically the separate input device is a musikeyer connected to a wearable computer that does the effects processing. Typically (in the Canadian tradition) the ice-scrapers are ice skates, and the instrument is played by skating and the sound is typically produced by gliding, scraping, stomping, or otherwise moving around on a skating rink.

Pagophone: H20 in its various Skates-of-Matter:

Christina (age 5) builds a pagophone for her skates:

Publication

Pagophone

In addition to skating and banging on ice blocks, another favorite Canadian tradition is soaking in a hot tub and "snowdiving", "swimming" or rolling in the snow in our bathing suits:

Christina and Daddy slithering in the snow:



More playing in the snow: http://wearcam.org/christina/hot_tub_snow2007jan05/