These Smart Pendulum Drums Play Themselves
This interactive art installation called Gyro is the work of Máximo Campo (AKA Correo Electrónico).
Art is a strange thing, because it is so deeply and intrinsically subjective. It doesn’t need a purpose and doesn’t even need to make sense. All it requires is an artist that wants to create. That becomes especially interesting in the world of interactive and kinetic art, which may incorporate technology without the limitations normally imposed by practicality. Gyro, an interactive art installation by Máximo Campo, is one example that makes use of modern sensors to bring swinging pendulum drums to life.
The Gyro installation consists of five drums that hang from the ceiling by cables, so that they can swing back and forth across the room like pendulums. As they swing, the drums pound out their own beats according to their acceleration. The acceleration may come from a person giving a drum a push, but it will also naturally occur thanks to gravity as the drum reaches the top of its arc and swings back down. Without purpose, that can be chaotic and cacophonous. But with careful timing, it is possible to create a more pleasant percussive beat.
This works because each drum is able to sense its own acceleration through an MPU6050 accelerometer module. A Raspberry Pi Pico development board in each drum monitors the MPU6050 and uses the acceleration data to control the pounding of three solenoids mounted underneath the drum head. The Pico directs power from four 18650 lithium batteries to those solenoids through relays.
Campo programmed the Pico boards in Python, with the script selecting between the three solenoids and altering beat frequency based on the acceleration value. The thresholds vary between the drums, which are also tuned differently. As a result, each pendulum drum makes its own unique music.
Campo, who works under the alias Correo Electrónico, showcased Gyro in Mexico City’s TDROOM gallery in January of 2025. He and fellow artist Emiliano Cruz also used Gyro, along with an electric guitar suspended in a similar manner, to record a short experimental music concert titled Clausura de Gyro, which you can listen to on Nina Protocol.