Imagine being a child, attending your first symphony orchestra concert with your family. You enter the beautiful concert hall, and somebody hands you a card with a violin on it. You are instructed to scan the imagine with your mobile device to unlock something.
The phone quickly scans...and a 3-D violin comes to life by growing out of the screen and playing music. That magical experience of blending classical music with augmented reality is what thousands of youth had at a special Cincinnati Symphony Pops Orchestra concert at the end of April.
MSU Journalism Prof. Stacey Fox was at Cincinnati's historic Music Hall, to first-hand see the impact of her augmented reality collaboration with the Symphony. She created various augmented reality instruments, calibrated their sound and the instrument image, to help children discover the various parts of a symphony orchestra.
Youth concert goers were challenged to find the instruments, through cards spread at various locations throughout the venue.
"Watching the reaction of young people as the instruments pop out and play is always fun," said Fox, who is Journalism's Transmedia Artist in Residence. "Many are experiencing the magic of the orchestra for the first time with family members, so it becomes a shared multi-generational learning moment."
This ongoing creative professional collaboration with the Cincinnati Symphony is a passion project for Fox, who also is a classically trained percussionist and musician. She has performed with symphonies around the world, and also served as an Arts Ambassador for the U.S. Department of State through their Performing Arts Initiative.