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Musical Chair

Musical Chair transforms a traditional Windsor spindle-back chair into an interactive musical instrument. To perform, the user sits backwards, straddling the seat and facing the spindles directly, turning the chair's backrest into a tangible interface. Touching each spindle activates a capacitive sensor and triggers MIDI notes in real time. The instrument supports chromatic and pentatonic modes and live looping, allowing users to change instrument sounds and build layered melodies through touch. Reversing the chair's familiar posture makes a domestic object behave like an instrument and invites an unexpected form of physical interaction.

The sensing system uses brass-rod electrodes embedded within the spindles, connected to an MPR121 capacitive touch controller and a Raspberry Pi running custom Python code that translates touch into MIDI output. I hand-built the chair from plans by Bibbings & Hensby, adapting its traditional woodworking to conceal the electronics. The project combines furniture making, embedded electronics, and physical computing, blurring the boundary between craft and computation.

4.120 Furniture Making Workshop

Spring 2026

Instructor / Chris Dewart

Musical Chair, a handcrafted Windsor chair with embedded touch-sensitive brass spindles.
Musical Chair interactive Windsor chair, prototype and fabrication documentation, view 1.
Musical Chair interactive Windsor chair, prototype and fabrication documentation, view 2.
Musical Chair interactive Windsor chair, prototype and fabrication documentation, view 3.
Musical Chair interactive Windsor chair, prototype and fabrication documentation, view 4.
Musical Chair interactive Windsor chair, prototype and fabrication documentation, view 5.
Musical Chair interactive Windsor chair, prototype and fabrication documentation, view 6.
Musical Chair interactive Windsor chair, prototype and fabrication documentation, view 7.
Musical Chair interactive Windsor chair, prototype and fabrication documentation, view 8.
Musical Chair interactive Windsor chair, prototype and fabrication documentation, view 9.
Musical Chair interactive Windsor chair, prototype and fabrication documentation, view 10.
Musical Chair interactive Windsor chair, prototype and fabrication documentation, view 11.
Musical Chair interactive Windsor chair, prototype and fabrication documentation, view 12.
Musical Chair interactive Windsor chair, prototype and fabrication documentation, view 13.
Musical Chair interactive Windsor chair, prototype and fabrication documentation, view 14.
Musical Chair interactive Windsor chair, prototype and fabrication documentation, view 15.

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