I ❤ Daphne


Alas I will probably not be able to get to the Science Museum for the Daphne Oram exhibition and marvel at the Oramics Machine…

Having set up the [wikipop]BBC Radiophonic Workshop[/wikipop] Daphne left because they were not being adventurous enough fast enough for her liking. It is a wonderful quirk that she should have been followed into the workshop by the equally delightful [wikipop]Delia Derbyshire[/wikipop]…

Daphne struggled on to build the Oramics Machine which could “read” squiggles painted onto [wikipop]film stock[/wikipop] and converted them to sound. [wikipop]Norman McLaren[/wikipop] had experimented with such ideas for some of his animations…

Meanwhile over the Atlantic [wikipop]Raymond Scott[/wikipop] was experimenting with electronic circuits to generate sound (and employing the young [wikipop]Robert Moog[/wikipop] to build some for him)…

You can download a Software Oramics Machine from the Daphne Oram website. It always seemed to me to be something that would make a great iOS app…

Others seem to have had the same thought 🙂

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