ConMusiCo – When children become digital musicians and increase their digital skills

Do you still remember your childhood when you enthusiastically used kitchen utensils to create improvised rhythms on everyday objects? The pots and bowls from the kitchen quickly became a drum kit, and the wooden spoon turned into your personal drumstick. Together with friends and siblings, an improvised kitchen jam was created that had less to do with making music and more to do with a playful act of making noise and experimenting.

This is precisely where the “ConMusiCo” project comes in. It aims to offer children the opportunity to create digital musical instruments in a similarly playful way and improve their digital skills in the process. The motto is: “Make noise, experiment and discover – we learn about coding and digital and analog sound generation while having fun with rhythm.”

The aim of the project is to give children, regardless of their previous musical knowledge, the opportunity to create a low-threshold, non-verbal type of communication. The focus here is on playful and experimental exchange through music and rhythm. ConMusiCo focuses on networked, tactile music devices that can be made from everyday materials such as rubber bands, toothpicks and clothespins. These are cleverly combined with cutting-edge technology, including micro-controllers, sensors and motors, to create interactive musical instruments.

In a co-creative process, we work together with students from the fields of Media Engineering/Informatics (& TRADY) and the Düsseldorf initiative “Coding for tomorrow” to teach children of primary school age (9-10 years) digital competence by building and trying out digital musical instruments to convey.

Previously, we were able to discuss hands-on with children aged 7-12 in regular co-design workshops how they can express themselves through sounds, rhythms and voice, how tactile technology can support this and how this can be done in pairs can do the distance.