Jon Cambeul: Wacom Guitar

The Speech Guitar is an instrument to create Coral music by chance, improvisation and emotionally expressed synthesized speech.

The project considers possibilities of using an appropriated, modified Graphics Tablet combined with joystick potentiometers as a device for parametric control of a library of custom software patches to edit the Mac OS speech manager.

Playing the instrument the performer emulates a guitarist, although the same control can be obtained with the graphics tablet and Joystick laying on a table and with the performer sitting in front of a computer.
It is important for the performance to have an interface similar to that of a musical instrument.

Holding the graphics tablet in a similar way as a guitar and drawing upon its surface during a performance feels natural. It also challenges why these digital devices should conform to a typical desktop interface. Furthermore, with the idea of performance in mind, it is a combination between the aesthetic of rock music and digital music with something that you have to engage your body with.

Performance requirements
I am proposing to play the speech Guitar in an unusual setting, to perform electronic music from an unusual presentation template. By this, I mean making it mobile. I want to move away from static Laptop and table interface as I feel the roll of the artist should be involved during the performance.

The Speech Guitar instrument will be worn like a conventional Guitar, and will be connected via USB to a custom made Back-Pack PA system and Rock n roll Suit. This means that it will be technically possible to play anywhere, to busk somewhere in public spaces such as:
The High Street, Shopping Centers, Warehouses, Bars, Clubs, ect.