Control sounds and lights on a car door with water guns.
Overview
The “SuperSoaker Car Organ” (in collaboration with Katherine Moriwaki and Basurama) was a modified car door that allowed for user interaction through squirting “SuperSoaker” water guns at the door which then triggered 10 lights to flash in pulses as well as six sound samples. The sounds were generated from six hacked toys that we found at local thrift stores in Miami, Florida (where the piece was created). The entire project took 5 days to build and was built to be robust enough to be driven around the streets of Miami in a large truck or parade-float type vehicle.
Picture of a kid shooting the organ at the opening:
Picture of the hacked and waterproofed instruments controlled by the water guns:
System
The “SuperSoaker Car Organ” was built with the entire right side paneling of a Toyota 4Runner SUV that was mounted on wooden beams from the back that supported its weight. The outside panel was created with red duct tape and conductive aluminum foil tape to serve as a large-scale circuit board attached to the switches controlling the instruments and the inputs to turn on the lights. An Arduino controlled the lighting sequences when it sensed input from the closed switches and triggered a blinking pattern that went off in timed intervals.
Video of the project:
Picture of the SuperSoaker used to trigger the project:
