After creating our fart sounds, I decided to augment our project into a fart machine. To keep things semi-appropriate, I chose to create a line of "poop emoji" rubber ducks that each represented one of the sounds we made. To create the soundtrack, I loaded the sounds into Scratch (scratch.mit.edu), and hooked up the Makey Makey to the computer and set each corresponding computer key to each of one of the sounds. For example, the space bar is hooked to the "FartSound.wav." When the space bar (or the Makey Makey wire) is clicked, the corresponding sound plays from the computer. Since the ducks are rubber, I need to attach a metal piece to them to complete the circuit, since rubber does not conduct electricity. I used brads that were poked into the side of the ducks and stuck out the bottom, where the Makey Makey wires were hooked. The result was the perfect little fart machine.
Although my kids and I had a lot of fun making this, I felt it really augmented our sound making learning experience. We got to see how the Makey Makey works, and create a "machine" that allowed us to display our sounds combined with an interesting visual. This really turns visual art making into an interdisciplinary experience, that includes science, technology, engineering and performance art, redefining what we might normally see as a visual art assignment. As stated in my previous post, I felt that the theme of the project may not be appropriate for some school environments, but the kids loved it and I got to include some of their visual culture (the poop emoji) as well, which made the project interesting for them while still learning about the technology.
The video below shows my son playing the Fart Machine, then a b-roll with the sound effects dubbed over (made in iMovie)...