Sergi Jordá & Grupo De Tecnología Musical De La Universitat Pompeu Fabra / 2005 / Spain Collaborative electronic music instrument

The reacTable invites the visitor to touch, move, manipulate and interact with objects on a table that represent the building blocks of electronic music.

Several simultaneous performers share complete control over the instrument by moving and rotating physical objects on a luminous round table surface. The objects interact with each other creating complex networks of flowing sound. By moving and relating these objects, users can create complex and dynamic sonic topologies. The creation of sound flows, volumes and effect parameters can also be influenced directly with the fingers, merely by touching the table top.

reacTable cannot only construct infinitely varying rhythms, soundscapes and melodic lines, but, at the same time, it visually displays how that music is being created.

In the words of co-creator Sergi Jordà, who was inspired by 1960s modular synthesizers, the reacTable is “a nearly magical interface” that combines intuitive ease of use with infinite musical possibility.