This artist talk and demonstration will explore Fiddle Henge, a robotically controlled array of four green violins mounted on a bass drum. Using digital fabrication, microcontroller programming, and custom mechanical components, Ross Wightman has created an instrument that blends acoustic resonance with robotic precision, producing intricate microtonal textures and complex rhythmic structures. He will discuss both the technical and conceptual aspects of the design, including the role of failure and unpredictability in shaping the work.
📢 “But Why Are They Green?” Fiddle Henge and Other Frankensteins
🗓 DATE & TIME: Saturday, April 12, 2025, from 1 – 3 PM ET
📍 LOCATION: In person at Harvestworks studio- registration required
Ross Wightman performing with Fiddle Henge
Ross Wightman is a composer, sound artist and double bassist from New Jersey. He serves as a Technical Manager at the Yale Center for Collaborative Arts and Media (CCAM) and Curator of the CCAM Sound Art Series. At Yale and the New School for Jazz and Contemporary Music, he teaches a variety of media studies, computer music and composition courses and leads electroacoustic improvisation ensembles.
As a sound artist and composer, his work incorporates microtonality, electro-acoustic multimedia composition and instrument building. In his electroacoustic instruments building practice, he repurposes and deconstructs found instruments, combining 3D printing, robotics, and machine learning to investigate themes related to performance practice, virtuosity, timbre and resonance.
As a double bassist, Ross focuses on the performance of contemporary music, specifically microtonal music and has premiered works by Raven Chacon and Alvin Lucier and performed at international festivals including the Darmstadt Internationale Ferienkurse für Neue Musik, The Lucerne Festival, Ambient Festival Köln, The New York City Electroacoustic Music Festival and the Bang on a Can Summer Festival. Clash Magazine has cited his work as among the “best of the American experimental underground.”
Ross Wightman performing his recent project called Water Feature
For Ross Wightman, electroacoustic instrument building is an act of transformation or reanimation. His practice merges 3D modeling, coding, and mechanical engineering to create electroacoustic instruments that fuse acoustic resonance, electronic amplification, and robotic precision—balanced by the unexpected behaviors and failures inherent in mechanical systems. These hybrid instruments challenge traditional performance paradigms, enabling intricate microtonal textures, complex rhythmic structures, and automated movements that often extend beyond human capability.
This artist talk and live demonstration will focus on Fiddle Henge, a robotically controlled array of four green violins mounted on a 26″ bass drum, played by a motorized acrylic disk. Using digital fabrication techniques, microcontroller programming, and custom mechanical components, Ross has designed an instrument that conjures rhythmically dense mechanical textures and microtonal sonorities that flicker between harsh noise and spectrally lush drones across its 16 individually tuned strings.
The violins’ green color, initially an incidental byproduct of material choice, has come to symbolize their transformation—altered not just physically, but through digital mediation. The talk will examine how materials and mechanics interact with code, questioning where the boundaries lie between instrument, performer, and machine in the realm of experimental music.
Ross will discuss both the technical and conceptual aspects of his process, from 3D printing custom parts to coding MIDI-controlled motor articulation. He will also explore how his background in performance and microtonal music informs and shapes this work.
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🎬 ADDITIONAL LINKS
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