The Royal Society is a Fellowship of many of the world’s most eminent scientists and is the oldest scientific academy in continuous existence.
For over three decades the Royal Society has opened the doors to its building in central London (6-9 Carlton House Terrace) and welcomed thousands of visitors to meet the researchers behind some of the leading science in the UK.
Its history dates back to 1778, when the President at the time, Joseph Banks, started ‘conversaziones’ (later known as the Soirees). An opportunity for Fellows of the Royal Society to show their latest research and breakthroughs, they have since developed into the annual public Summer Science Exhibition.
Music Accessibility at the Royal Society Summer Science Exhibition 2025
Zen Olenski and Tim Yates of the MIDI Assoication’s Music Accessibility Special Interest group were part of the Smile Powered Pop Music with PhotoSYNTH main exhibit of the Royal Society Summer Science Exhibition 2025!
Here is Zen’s wrap report that he provided to us.
There were a few really profound moments we had with individuals that we aren’t likely to forget any time soon, and are still receiving positive and inspirational messages from people who met us through the event, who plan to use our products in everything from church dementia groups to autism schools. We are very lucky to have had this opportunity and reached a large audience, exposed many people to accessible technology and hopefully inspired and armed a whole generation of musicians as we were giving away free software synthesizers at the event! Everybody left with a musical instrument 🙂
We presented a number of accessible instruments, including the PhotoSYNTH:interFACE that you may recognise from the MIDI Innovation Awards 2021, though in a different format with a new “sympathetic synthesizer” mode innovation that converts moods into associative chords. The reception was overwhelmingly positive.
MIDI was central to the whole operation which I am really thankful for! You know I love MIDI, and it is events like these that make me extra thankful!
Reliability was important and we had no problems all weekend – the MIDI was rock solid.
We lit up a ROLI piano using facial expressions and moods via MIDI, and even passed the MIDI into our little modular for a bit of a royal rave.
People really appreciated the musical relationship and we had many conversations about audio theory, music making, maths and of course, synthesizers.
Here is a photo from our “quiet Sunday session” where headphones were provided
Zen Olenski
Developer Photosynth
Music is fundamental to the human experience, but people with disabilities who aren’t able to play a traditional instrument are often excluded from making music.
Zen Olenski and Tim Yates discussed the work they’re doing to address this by trying to ensure that everyone has an instrument they can play.
Zen explained how he uses the latest face recognition technology to create the PhotoSYNTH that makes music from facial expressions, and Tim discussed some of the other amazing accessible instruments that are out there.
Here is the Youtube video of their presentation about Music Accessibility