Gamelan Playtime draws in passers-by as they walk along Hungerford terrace on the South Bank in London. By moving their hands across a tactile surface pedestrians trigger sensors that release recordings of the Royal Festival Hall‘s Gamelan set being played by school children. The sounds are made up of the Gamelan instruments, human voices and song.
The patterns on the 30m long wall take their inspiration from the shadow and rod puppets, which Gamelan music often accompanies, as well as from the Gamelan instruments themselves. The colour palette is based on Javanese batiks. The patterns are depicted by the use of common rubber buffers screwed into the wall that is painted a deep gold.
Created by Arlete Castelo and Melissa Mongiat (students of the Creative Practice for Narrative Environments MA at Central St Martins, UAL) the Gamelan Playtime is the first installation for the Royal Festival Hall Education Centre “Keeping in touch� project. It is sited on the Hungerford Terrace untill January 2006.