Tubulophone

The Tubulophone is an invention of Jean-Robert Sédano.

The tubulophone is at the same time an electronic musical instrument and a whole of interactive musical sculptures invented in 1993 by the musician and programmer Jean-Robert Sédano (born in 1956). Intended for collective musical improvisations, the tubulophones are generally presented by group of eight. Each instrument consists of a two meters height vertical tube, posed on a base circular and finished either by an ear trumpet, or by a widened mouth evoking the branches of a tree. Tactile sensors in Aluminum placed at middle height on the tube make it possible to the player there to place the hands and to produce the sounds.

Principle

The tactile sensors intended for the hands of the players are the electrodes of a Ohmmètre which measures the electrical resistance of the human Peau. These data vary according to surface of skin applied but also according to each person. Indeed moisture, the thickness of the cutaneous layer are very different from an individual to another. Moreover electrical resistance of the skin also varies according to the mood or from the emotions of the person. This property is in particular used for the realization of or material lie detectors of relieving using the “biofeedback”. The data coming from the sensors are treated by a series of converters analog-to-digital and associated in a computer program with orders MIDDAY (Musical Instrument DIGITAL Interface). Synthetizers or samplers contain the sounds prepared in advance which are diffused at once by the loudspeaker of each tubulophone. This sequence of logical operations is however transparent for the user who perceives only the sound result of his tactile play.

The sounds produced by each tubulophone depend on the preset virtual composition in the computer program, on the actions of each player and the characteristics of his skin. Each tubulophone can generate a sound landscape which is clean for him, containing the natural sounds, of voice, instrumental or electronic sounds.

Musical and social use

The tubulophones were conceived like a ludic sound installation with the collective use. The facility of the play with the sounds which can be controlled as much by children as of the adults without preliminary training, in a spirit of discovered and of experiment is the motivation first of its author. This taste for a social and convivial experimentation by the means of interactive sound installations is found in other creations of Jean-Robert Sédano (the Cube, the Round, Tableaux Sound, Hop' Music, Guéridons Musical).

Of share their destination collective, the tubulophones are not sold with private individuals, but with festivals, cities or public spaces.

History

Tubulophone was created in May 1993. Broad horns out of resin and glass fiber allowed the diffusion of the sound. The first public presentation took place with Orleans during “Science in Festival”, on the place of Martroi on June 5th, 1993. The installation was presented then in more than 70 cities in France and Europe, in the the Caribbean and in French Guiana.

The first version was destroyed in a road accident and was replaced by a new series of eight musical sculptures in 2002. The horns were transformed into flexible branches at the top of each tube.

A third version was created in December 2005 with Cayenne in Guyana, in an esthetics inspired of the Art Tembé, with the bright colors and the geometrical forms.

Information on Tubulophone and other works of Jean-Robert Sedano are on the site ludicart:

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