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Freshmen Fine Tune Old Appliances, Make Music For Their Peers
Heavy metal music is getting a whole new meaning at the University of Cincinnati. There, about 120 young architecture and interior design students have created a range of musical instruments snare drums, guitars, violins, xylophones, zithers, chimes, rattles and more out of kitchen appliances.
Whats more, theyve written original compositions that theyll perform on those instruments at
7 p.m., Wednesday, Jan. 19
, in auditorium 4400 of the
College of Design, Architecture, Art, and Planning
. The concert is free and open to the public.
There are strings attached though. The students enrolled in the nations number-one undergraduate interior design program and number-two undergraduate architecture program must all learn lessons regarding the use and re-use of building materials, construction techniques, creativity under pressure and teamwork, all while being challenged to perceive their environment with new eyes and ears.
The need to remain upbeat is another of the lessons learned, according to Philip Knapp, 18, of Pickerington, Ohio. His guitar made from a refrigerator vegetable drawer, plexiglass (from the same refrigerator) and a freezer vent broke on me the first time. So, he began his design project over again. This time, he bolted the elements together. Similarly, Lindsey Mackall got rattled when a rattle shed made from a freezer ice box and a lock mechanism on a stove broke the night before it was due.
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Their instructor, Melanie Swick, adjunct professor of architecture, explained, They both learned that elements under tension need support. Its a basic design principal and what this project is all about.
Some other lessons students are learning are on the lighter side: Its fun to shake metal. Its like advanced kindergarten, and as for my musical ability Well, I have no professional training, and it shows, quipped Vince Pelino, 18, of Westerville, Ohio, who made a gong that looks more like a shield-and-sword combination.
He continued, I come from a family of 11 kids so Im used to making things over When I first tried to weld a handle to the gong which is made from the galvanized steel of a stove it smoked and smelled terribly. I then turned to the most versatile construction tool of all: duct tape. I used the tape to attach a sheet-metal handle to the galvanized metal that was once the side of a stove.
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Leading the class are Inci Ilgin, assistant professor of interior design; Dennis Mann, professor of architecture; James Postell, associate professor of interior design; Vincent Sansaloni, visiting assistant professor of architecture and interior design; David Lee Smith, professor of architecture and Melanie Swick, adjunct professor of interior design.
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