Let’s get this straight, more than metal is conductive? Why wasn’t I taught this kind of stuff in primary school. If I was allowed to put wires into bananas and play piano with fruit when I was 8, I may have probably ended up doing a science module right now, instead, alas, here I am. Currently sticking cabled and wires to someones body to create a full size Operation game board.

Yep, you heard me, Operation. The one with the butterflies in the tummy and the body that goes buzz if you go wrong. A much lighter result than actual surgery, but fun nevertheless.

By using the ‘Makey-Makeys’, a projector and a program called sound plant loaded with some buzzing sound effects, tense music, a flatline and a heart monitor beep, we managed to create an interactive full size game board.

The idea came around by the idea that the makey maker’s are used primarily online as a form of play. Seen here to be used to create a game pad out of play-doh, a dance mat out of water and a piano staircase, we chose to take that idea of play in the direction of making something an audience can play with. By having our ‘body’ lie down, connected to earth, then a ‘doctor’ stood at the side who holds the hand of an audience member, the audience member will be able to touch any part of the ‘patients’ stomach and a connection will be complete, thus creating a buzz sound effect.

We also added a projection onto the stomach of the game board which finished the look of the board.

All in all, the exercise worked reasonably well, with a couple of problems but on a whole it worked as intended. The issues were due to moments of poor connectivity, but with better cables and more careful placement, this could be avoided. What other game boards could we make? Buckaroo? Maybe not. Who knows…?