The original idea stems from Herbert Simon's metaphor of an ant walking on a beach. Although when looking at an ant from above their path seems very complex, Simon suggests it stems from simple local interactions such as 'see a rock, turn left'.

If we imagine that the rock could be your foot or mine, and replace the ant with some device like a robot, then that is essentially 'interactivity'. My interest is in finding the richness, complexity, and creativity in such interactions.

By encouraging a state of play, Bubble Sequencer offers users the chance to interact and create sound sequences in a free and open manner.

The user firstly pumps small bubbles into a series of liquid filled pipes, each assigned a tone. As the bubbles float upwards, they pass a number of sensors set to on or off by the user. Depending on the state of the sensor, a musical tone is triggered as the bubble passes by.

The interaction builds upon the relationship between the steady rise of bubbles and the time based sequencing of music. While Bubble Sequencer is simple to interact with, a wide range of musical sequences can be created.