NOMIS: Touch-Sensitive Musical instrument

Jonathan Sparks is an artist, musician, and maker living in Brooklyn, NY. Nomis is a musical instrument created with the aim of making loop based music more expressive and transparent through gesture and light. Midi sounds are selected, played, and looped, being passed across the instrument as a way of illustrating how melodies are created and how they fit into a larger composition. Midi sounds are selected and displayed through the first light tower, each being represented by a different color. Those sounds are then available to be performed and displayed with the polyphonic octagonal interface in the middle. These performances are stored and looped by spinning the whole octagonal interface. The loops are then displayed through the last tower where they each can individually be turned off and on again to create a dynamic composition from the loops created live. Watch video below to see how it works.