Coloratura

Coloratura is an innovative musical interface that combines electronic music and physical, analog art. Using a series of custom paintbrushes, the device allows users to create sounds as they paint on a conductive canvas. Each of the paintbrushes in the interface produces a different musical note and is assigned to a paint color, simulating synesthesia, and enabling users to explore the relationship between art and music while painting with sound.

Coloratura is a one-of-a-kind musical interface that lets users explore visual art and music through a set of musical paintbrushes. Each brush is a modified paintbrush, wired to an Arduino circuit board. When the brush touches a conductive surface, it closes a circuit and sends a wireless BLE MIDI signal to any computer or MIDI-capable device, which triggers a musical note. Each brush is assigned to a different musical note and paint color, based on the relationship between light waves and sound frequencies. The device is polyphonic, so users can explore what different colors sound like together or what different harmonic combinations look like.

Coloratura is innovative because even though it uses technology as a bridge to merge physical, tangible art creation with digital music creation, the user experience is designed to focus more on the physical, analog act of making art over the technology driving it. Once the interface is connected to a computer, the rest of the end-user’s experience is entirely screen-free: everything happens through paint, brushes, and canvas, with no display or app required.

Coloratura has two versions (the Pro and the Mini), which are built on the same underlying design.
The Pro version has 12 brushes, each mapped to a note in the full chromatic scale. I use this device for my live performances, pairing it with a custom BLE MIDI pedal board to shift octaves, add live looping, and control other parameters. My favorite performance technique is water marbling: I dip the brushes in a tray of water placed on top of an analog projector. The paint floats on the surface and creates visuals similar to the liquid light shows of the psychedelic rock era.

The Mini version has 5 brushes mapped to the pentatonic scale; I use it for the public workshops and exhibitions that I host. This version is designed to be accessible to people of all ages and abilities. No musical or artistic experience is required, as the pentatonic tuning ensures that any combination of brushes will sound harmonious. On-device buttons can send additional BLE MIDI notes that can be mapped to cycle through a pre-set soundbank, if the DAW has that feature. This lets multiple users play together and create a “paintbrush orchestra.”

Accessibility is the design feature I’ve prioritized most. The newest iteration of the Coloratura Mini includes features designed for individuals with limited mobility, dexterity or vision: swivel clamp mounts to position units at different heights and angles for wheelchair users, ergonomic brush grips for users who need a more secure hold, and a variety of textured paintbrush handles that provide visually impaired users a multi-sensory experience by associating musical notes with textures instead of colors.

I have been building and iterating on Coloratura for over a decade, and as far as I know, there is no other device that combines physical art making and electronic music production in a way that’s designed to be as user-friendly and accessible to such a wide audience.

When people see Coloratura for the first time, the most common question I get is “How does this work?” Because the device is mostly wireless and I keep the computer out of sight, people get curious about where the sound is coming from, and that curiosity becomes a way into conversations about circuits, soldering, and coding. At a summer program in an under-resourced neighborhood, a group of kids told me, unprompted, “I want to be an inventor when I grow up.” They’d seen someone who looked like them build something that felt like magic, and it made them believe they could too.

The best part of this work is connecting with people who don’t often get invited into the arts: older adults who don’t think of themselves as “creative” or “talented,” people with vision or mobility limitations, kids who are neurodivergent, and kids in the justice system. I love watching all of them lean into the process of creating.

My favorite population to work with is individuals who are visually impaired. Every summer, I host workshops at the Kansas School for the Blind. I love watching the students lock into the sounds of their brushes and listen to each other in a way that sighted users often struggle to do. It’s an honor to offer them a new way to connect with the visual arts: “I love the way that Eb feels,” one student told me, since each brush handle has its own texture. Another said, “Green sounds so cool.” One student who was both hearing and visually impaired used one hand to paint while the other hand rested on a speaker, so she could feel the vibrations as she played.

There’s something about Coloratura that unlocks something special within people. I haven’t quite figured out what it is exactly; I’ve just witnessed it so many times: I see it in older adults in memory care whose eyes light up when they first touch a brush to the canvas; in kids locked up in juvenile detention centers, who despite being dismissed as “difficult” or “troublemakers” are the ones who are most engaged, most creative, and most collaborative in my workshops; in neurodivergent kids who are able to hyperfocus and engage with Coloratura in a way that brings their parents to tears.

Coloratura helps people connect with their creativity, especially people who’ve been told that it isn’t theirs to access. I truly believe that creativity is our birthright as humans, and I love that my device can help people reclaim it.