The five foot long cute green serpent, whimsically named ``Nessie'' can operate floating freely (un-tethered) in a pool or lake, or can be connected to a garden hose. Nessie is a small portable FUNtain that has been tested extensively through field trials in Toronto. It has visited many of the public pools and splash pads in Toronto as well as a number of the city's summertime street festivals. Overall the response from people has been really astounding, particularly from families with young children. While we expected people to be drawn to the visual / tactile experience, we were continuously surprised by the how well young children connected with the musical aspect of the FUNtain. It seemed to inspire both kids and adults to play music! We observed children playing tunes by trial and error and playing by ear.
In the field trials we found that Nessie had a remarkable ability to captivate people of all ages. So much so, that it has taken the interest of a number of music therapists whom we are now working with to introduce the instrument as a rehabilitation tool.
If you would like to see a video, there are various formats available at: http://funtain.ca/nessievideo If you have any difficulty, please contact us.
The larger FUNtains can also have intelligence that will allow it to interact with people who are near the waterplay area, yet too far to play the instrument itself. Sophisticated motion detectors allow the FUNtain to react to the presence and movements of people in dynamic seductive patterns in thin jets of water to draw people in. When the people venture to block the various jets, it begins its operation as a hydraulophone so to let them explore their own water musical imagination.
The FUNtain creates its ineffable sense of awe and wonder in the way that it interacts with passers by. As people walk by it may start playing itself (much like a player-piano) but then stopa as people stop to take a look at it. In auto-playing mode the jets rise and fall by themselves to play a melody in step with the pace of passers by. For example, if a person is walking by at a quick pace, the jets might spray (in order) A D D D E F E F D C A C ... (``The ants go marching one by one, hurrah, hurrah ...''). When the person slows down, the pace of the music slows, and thus the pace of the music matches the pace of the passer by. If the person stops the music stops. If a curious observer approaches the FUNtain and covers one of the jets (say, the letter ``A'' corresponding to 220 Hertz) the ``A'' note is sounded..
For educational purposes (and to encourage aspiring musicians) the jets of the funtain are labeled with the letters of their corresponding musical notes as well as corresponding frequencies in Hertz (vibrations per second) below each jet.
Water from the FUNtain is re-circulated by way of water collection on a small splash pad that is sloped toward drains. We have experimented with various kinds of surfaces, and found that the best surface (non-slippery when wet, etc.) was a surface that can be made from crumb rubber from recycled tires.
The entire sculpture can be run off renewable energy (solar both for photovoltaics as well as heating of the water to make the sculpture more comfortable to play.). This emphasis on renewable energy also provides further safety of materials (electrical circuits, etc.) by way of an entirely ``off-grid'' installation. We have designed, built, and tested prototypes of the waterplay sculptures with renewable energy, by creating an urban ``teach beach'' research facility at our 330 Dundas Street studio. The design choices have been a proven success (winning entry, first prize, in the International CORAM Sustainable Design Competition in 2004 for a similar kind of waterplay sculpture run on renewable energy; see http://www.eyetap.org).
