A reflection on music making on water. The sonic kayak as instrument. Did we have expectations? Had we spent time on water?  Yes to both. Our first public experiment at FoAM this week was simple and clear and successful. We paddled around an estuary with sounds changing dependent on where you went, the fundamentals of bicrophonics unfolding. What I had not anticipated though was the sense that much of the music we added from speakers was unnecessary. Even invasive. By the 2nd day I had a clear idea sense that any added audio needed to come from underneath, from within the water. Should the speakers be immersed within the hull? We found they certainly need to be in front of the paddler.  The use of one hydrophone per kayak had been a conclusion, but they would need to be fed through the Raspberry Pi and as well as vastly increasing the cost, could they give us feedback/delay issues?  Any ideas of vibrating the hull for paddler pleasure were binned too as this would add to an already too noisy underwater environment for marine life. Remember how the noise of that small engine’s boat could be heard from the far side of the river? Even when with the noise of loud paddling.

No. This project really has body.  And sonic kayaking is something very different. Onwards.