Electromagnetic Gongs: Not Just For Kids!

While we don't advise you to visit the Austin Children's Museum by yourself, we encourage you to get your little brother or baby cousin and make way to the museum in time to catch Eric Archer's Electric Gong exhibit.

Traditionally, gongs are hung and struck with large mallets to produce full, rich frequencies which bounce off one another and create the sound we are all familiar with. Sounds produced come from the different vibrational shape in each gong, producing a very unique tone. What Archer does is take those resonant frequencies and manipulate them using a piano-style keyboard interface placed directly in front of the gongs. He records the exact frequencies, totaling around 20 to 30 playable notes in several octaves, in each gong. The keyboard interface plays the frequency back at the gong, creating a sound that you can't produce with a mallet.

Using the interface, visitors at the Children's Museum can create polyphonic sounds with each of the three gongs, creating ambient sounds that echo for minutes. Depending on the lines for the exhibit, visitors will be able to create long composition pieces using the electromagnetic waves.

Admission for adults is $5.50 and the exhibit ends September 1st.