Plucking Strings of Light
Artist, composer, and koto player Miya Masaoka has developed a laser version of the traditional Japanese stringed instrument. The Laser Koto features a tripod-mounted laser array that Masaoka plays by passing her hands through the beams, triggering a variety of sampled and processed sounds from a computer
The koto, a large plucked zither with moveable bridges, has been a staple of traditional Japanese music since the 8th century. Masaoka first became interested in electronically enhancing it in the early 1990s. She had long used extended playing techniques to expand the tonal palette of her instrument—stroking, rubbing, and scratching its strings, rather than simply plucking and bending them—and electronics seemed like a natural extension of that process.
“As someone who is creating new pieces for the instrument, I just wanted it to be able to make lots of new sounds,” she says.
The Laser Koto is essentially a traditional zither retrofitted with four laser beams, which Masaoka calls “metaphorical strings.” A set of light sensors register when the beams are broken by the movements of her hands and arms and infrared proximity sensors determine how close she is to the posts on which the lasers are mounted.
Every gesture Masaoka makes triggers a sample or invokes an effect using the database of samples and music patches stored in her laptop.
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