Using an Adafruit Makey Makey resistive touch board, I created a 13-string harp made of streams of water. To accomplish this, I created a scaffolding lined with water reservoirs on the back. A small gardening pump is submerged in the each of the reservoirs. Water is driven up the scaffold through vinyl tubing and shot down directly from the top, down into a PVC pipe that feeds back into a reservoir. This creates a continuous loop of flow. At the same time, one input from the board is matched to a reservoir such that when an individual grounded to the board touches a stream, it triggers a unique board input. This input is interpreted by the board as a key press and causes my computer, using a musical typing program like the one in Garageband, to play a note.

Here’s a shabby diagram:

And here is some equally shabby video of the instrument in action:

I wish I had better documented this invention before I disassembled it to start making improvements. My goal is to add some additional features including lights and playability while un-grounded via a capacitive touch board.