Acrylic, wood, light, computer, surround speakers, LCD screens

In the Fall of 2015, Marco Pinter was Artist in Residence at the Bay Area Discovery Museum, a children’s museum located under the Golden Gate bridge in Sausalito, CA. The resulting work, Symphonic Picnic, explored the perceptual science of synesthesia. Colored shapes, when manipulated on a custom light table, were translated via computer vision techniques into rhythms and music. The specific shapes used were based on experiments by cognitive psychologists V.S. Ramachandran and Wolfgang Kohler. The piece lies at the intersection of art, science and technology, and is an investigation into the brain and perception through color, shape and sound. The work reached thousands of children and their families, and due to its success, was kept on for four additional months, and is now part of the permanent collection of the museum, to be rotated back in the future.

"We are thrilled to have artist Marco Pinter to the Bay Area Discovery Museum as part of our Artist-in-Residence program," said Karyn Flynn, CEO of the Bay Area Discovery Museum. “Pinter’s incorporation of technology and engineering in his work is a great segue into the Museum's forthcoming exhibition ... an early childhood Fab Lab..."