Skip to main content
Christian Eede
7 September 2022, 13:48

Artist designs instrument that allows you to create music by painting

Kansas musician Camry Ivory created the instrument after wondering what it would be like to paint with music

Artist designs instrument that allows you to create music by painting

A Kansas City-based musician has created an instrument that allows you to create music by painting.

The instrument, dubbed the Coloratura, was devised after multidisciplinary artist and musician Camry Ivory began wondering what it would be like to paint with music, according to a new interview in KCUR 89.3. The instrument is devised from an easel with a metal canvas, 12 brushes and pots of paint. Long wires connect the brushes to a circuit board, and each brush conjures a different sound when it touches the metal canvas.

Ivory began developing the instrument in 2015 as part of a one-off project and has been refining it ever since. "I just thought it would be cool to have a musical paintbrush to be able to create both music and art simultaneously," she told KCUR 89.3.

Before developing the Coloratura, Ivory's main instrument of choice was the piano, but she said that she found playing it too "one-dimensional", and ultimately decided to take a friend's suggestion of learning a new instrument to the extreme.

Writing on Coloratura's website, Ivory said: "My initial inspiration for creating Coloratura was the overwhelming desire to incorporate visual elements into my performances as fluidly and spontaneously as I create my music, and to interact and respond both visually and musically to changes in the audience, the venue, or the elements."

Every performance made using the Coloratura, its website adds, "has a unique piece of music and a unique piece of art as the end result".

Check out some videos of the Coloratura in action here, and read more about the project via Coloratura's dedicated website.