Column“We believe in participation – empowering people to have a place in the stories that are told around them. We research new ways to interact and tell stories.” – Daily tous les jours

The senses are tricky. One whiff of an ingredient in our favorite meal, or the sound of that love song’s minor notes, and we are transported to another time and another space, instantly. When the senses are blended, the effect can be proportionately enhanced. Such is the thinking behind the project 21 Balançoires: swinging with the  joy and freedom of abandon coupled with the creative collaboration of making sound.

21 Balançoires (21 Swings) from Daily Tous Les Jours on Vimeo

The multi-skilled, Daily tous les jours explored the topic of cooperation when designing 21 Balançoires. Cooperation, which states that together we achieve better things than separately, is at the center of the group’s success. Daily tous les jours consists of Mouna Andraos, Melissa Mongiat, Kelsey Snook who say about themselves:

We come from the fields of interaction design and narrative environments. With those skills, we design large scale projects that impact cities down to tiny ones that fit inside a pocket. Our projects bring magic to everyday places, behaviors and objects, inviting the public to become active contributors in the process and surrounding environments.

For 21 Balançoires, the result is a giant collective instrument made of 21 musical swings; each swing in motion triggers different notes, all the swings together compose a piece, but some sounds only emerge from cooperation. The project stimulates ownership of the new space, bringing together people of all ages and backgrounds, and creating a place for playing and hanging out in the middle of the city centre.  We owe the musical interpretation of this playful experiment to composer Radwan Ghazi-Moumneh.

Given their process, and the magical visceral appeal of 21 Balançoires, one could say that, indeed, this project has been more than an exercise of musical cooperation. It creates the kind of memories that can be stirred by the sight of a swing set and the sounds that it emits.

Eco, trends, art, creativity and how they tumble through social media to shape culture fascinate EcoSalon columnist Dominique Pacheco. Her trends blog, mixingreality, speaks to these topics daily, and here at EcoSalon, she takes a weekly look at the intersection of eco and art. We call it heARTbeat.

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