Polly: Concept & Experience

Polly World is the 4th generation of Co-creative Tangibles developed by MusicalFieldsForever within the RHYME project. The name Polly comes from "poly", the Greek prefix for many. We have chosen the name because the Polly World Co-creative Tangibles are many folded in a multitude of ways: There a many ways to create music, many musical tunes and visual expressions, many ways to play and interact, many ways to participate socially, many colours, polygon shapes and many possible sensorial experiences, just to mention a few.

The Polly World consists of four Co-creative Tangibles and two Apps. One App, Polly Compose, is for interacting with the Co-Creative Tangibles at home, using a Smartphone or a Tablet over the Internet. The other App, Polly Control is for setting up and manage the whole Polly World.

The four Co-creative Tangibles are: Polly Land, Polly Planet, Polly Fire and Polly Ocean.

Polly Land is a large wired Interactive Landscape in the Polly World. Polly Land has three arms and an embedded projector for a close and intimate relation to live video and dynamic graphics. One of Polly Lands arms has a Microphone for voice input, one has a Camera for live video and one arm has a RFID-reader for selecting and playing music in several ways using Scene Cards and Tag-Things. In addition Polly Land has six Touch-sensors and four Bend-sensors to vary the music further. It also has several sensorial stimulating surfaces to enrich the sensory experience.

Polly Planet is a large ball-shaped mobile wireless Co-creative Tangible. Polly Planet has a RFID-reader (the white triangle on the top in the picture) for selecting and playing music in several ways. By choosing a RFID tagged Scene-card (like a CD cover) the user can select the music and accompanying visuals he likes to listen to and play. By interacting with the Tag- Things the user can play the chosen music as if it was an orchestra with different musicians. Polly Planet has two Bend-sensors, four Touch-sensors and one Movement-sensor (accelerometer) to change and create the music further.

Polly Fire is a sleeping-bag-shaped mobile wireless Co-creative Tangible. Polly Fire has a RFID-reader (the white velvet triangle at one end) for selecting and playing music in several ways. By choosing a RFID tagged Scene-card (looking like a CD cover) the user can select the music and accompanying visuals he likes to listen to and play. By interacting with the Tag- Things the user can play the chosen music as if it was an orchestra with different musicians.

Polly Ocean is a big banana-shaped mobile wireless Co-creative Tangible. Polly Ocean has a RFID-reader (a white velvet triangle at one end) for selecting and playing music in several ways. By choosing a RFID tagged Scene-card (looking like a CD cover) the user can select the music and accompanying visuals he likes to listen to and play. By interacting with the Tag- Thing the user can play the chosen music as if it was an orchestra with different musicians. Polly Ocean has two Bend-sensors, two Touch-sensors and two Movement-sensors (accelerometers) to change and create the music further. Polly Ocean has one Microphone that you can sing into. Polly Ocean then adds effects to your voice in real time and you can change it further by moving and thereby activating the Movement-sensor. Polly Ocean also records your voice so you can play with it in a musical manner by interacting with the Bend-sensors.

Interact in Polly

Touch to create light and sound in the Polly Land.

Touch with two hands to create light and sound in Polly Land.

Bend to create light and sound in the Polly Land.

Learn to play sound in the Polly World using RFID/NFC tags.

Select scene in the Polly Land.

Select scene in Polly Land using scene-cards.

Record with microphone, film with camera and project in the Polly World.

Activating camera in the Polly Land.

Interact with the lighting microphone in the Polly World.

Father singing in the microphone in the Polly Land.

Mother and child interacting with RFID/NFC cards in the Polly World.

Father and child climbing and resting in the Polly Land.