Better With You @ the BRIC Hack-A-Thon House Party

Last Saturday, I had the privilege of presenting Better With You in the wild for the first time. My hosts were BRIC in Brooklyn, who were having a family day party. The open demonstration occurred on either side of performances by the brilliant Ken Butler, as well as fellow Berklee alum Julia Easterlin, who is way too prolific and talented for me to share a stage with. But it happened! And it was awesome!

I used the opportunity to do a little research with both kids and parents in order to hone in the design a little more. However, since a picture is worth a thousand words, how about I just show you what happened? I mean, that's got to be like a million words then, right?

About 12:15 PM, when the first round of kids got in, and I learned just how fragile this thing can be.

One enterprising young man found a creative way to activate two instruments at once without having to move the plate stands.

No, you're not seeing things, that's my thesis advisor Ethan Hein, who was on this thing longer than any kid. He is a staunch supporter.

Turns out adults without kids enjoy it too, although they can't do it without giggling. I'm okay with this.

Ken Butler, with some sort of hockey stick violin-guitar-banjo hybrid thing that can only be described as next-level.

Julia Easterlin, who performed the miraculous feat of maintaining the attention of like a hundred kids under age 10 for an hour. She's also a really good singer, I feel like that's worth mentioning.

My attempt at the whole "diva before her adoring crowd" shot. Mainly to give you an idea of the size of Julia's audience during her set.

Actually, I was wrong...it turns out that video is worth even more words. So here's a minute-long version of what ended up being five hours of people using this thing:

So what did we learn? Mostly that parents love this thing. But also that in situations where there will be kids (and trust me, there will be kids), Better With You needs to be about a hundred times more durable and stable, since this prototype fell over and had to be re-taped several times throughout the afternoon. Luckily, it only took a minute, but I just have to be ready for the possibility that this thing will be handled roughly.

I also learned the value of investing in one of those big Purell pump bottles when a lot of people will be touching your installation art.

However, I have found some materials that will let me make a version of Better With You that can withstand a little abuse. And come March 5th, I'll be able to put it to the test. More on that later.

Be good.

- Ernie