On the sunny morning of September 20, a gathering of children and grown-ups wandered across the Ontario Science Centre’s (OSC) front lawn for the first time. The main attraction that brought them to the football-field sized space was the new exhibition-cum-playground called ‘Teluscape’ and its centrepiece, the ‘Funtain.’
“Teluscape’ gives visitors a new way to participate in science by exploring the space around them,” said Lesley Lewis, CEO of the Ontario Science Centre. At its heart is ‘Funtain,’ a water organ created by the father of wearable computing and a U of T professor, Steve Mann.
The ‘Funtain’ structure reigns over ‘Teluscape’. A low airy hum surrounds the area, where twenty-four steel cylinders installed in bases of concrete sit on the top of a hill at the entrance of the OSC. Like a woodwind instrument-a clarinet, for example-the ‘Funtain’ is a ‘waterwind’ that uses a system of hydraulics to push water through quarter-inch holes in the steel ‘keyboard.’ The obstruction of these holes with your hands or fingers produces a steady, organ-like tone.
“The original inspiration was squeaky faucets,” said Mann. “It’d be easy to make a bunch of defective taps into a musical instrument. It was too hard to play though, because it would hurt your fingers pushing that hard on water. So I started playing around with some form of hydraulic assist, to make it light and easy to the touch.”
‘Funtain’ is adapted so that vibratos, semi-tones, and chords can be played over the holes, miming the flexibility of expression a traditional instrument would offer. In total, the organ covers a range of more than three octaves. In the winter, the structure can be played with air instead of water for similar results.
“[We] had to overcome a lot of problems in design…in order to make this durable in an outdoor location, in the weather and everything,” said Mann. “It plays year-round.”
When not being played, the structure is certainly being played on. The simplicity of its design, with or without water, and its towering size made the sound sculpture an instant jungle gym for children.
“[We] have been working on this for about a year now, but the original idea, I’ve been working on it on and off for about 20 years,” said Mann. “More recently…I had a baby daughter and that got my interest back into fountains again.”
The first water instrument Mann created was a “Nessie” of 21 inches in diameter, a tight circle. Now, “Poseidophones” of larger and various sizes are on their way to the market for bathtub or swimming pool use at home.
“You can see smiles on people’s faces, kids being so delighted with what they can do with water,” said Chris Aimone, a U of T graduate student in computer engineering and an integral part of Mann’s effort in creating the water organ. “[‘Funtain’] had so much pull that the two of us just dove right into it. For our first venue, this is fantastic.”
