Freshmen Fine Tune Old Appliances, Make Music For Their Peers

Take note: Freshman from the University of Cincinnati are banding together in small groups so they can turn cast-off ovens, refrigerators and dishwashers into musical instruments. Then, they’ll provide a free concert of original compositions at 7 p.m., Wednesday, Jan. 19, in Auditorium 4400 of the College of Design, Architecture, Art and Planning.

Date: 1/11/2005 12:00:00 AM
By: Mary Reilly
Phone: (513) 556-1824

Photos By: Dottie Stover

“Heavy metal” music is getting a whole new meaning at the University of Cincinnati. There, about 120 young architecture and interior design students have created a range of musical instruments – snare drums, guitars, violins, xylophones, zithers, chimes, rattles and more – out of kitchen appliances.

Whitney Spang of Hyde Park plays a see-through plastic drum made from refrigerator parts

What’s more, they’ve written original compositions that they’ll perform on those instruments at 7 p.m., Wednesday, Jan. 19, in auditorium 4400 of the College of Design, Architecture, Art, and Planning. The concert is free and open to the public.

There are strings attached though. The students – enrolled in the nation’s number-one undergraduate interior design program and number-two undergraduate architecture program – must all learn lessons regarding the use and re-use of building materials, construction techniques, creativity under pressure and teamwork, all while being challenged to perceive their environment with new eyes…and ears.

The need to remain upbeat is another of the lessons learned, according to Philip Knapp, 18, of Pickerington, Ohio. His guitar – made from a refrigerator vegetable drawer, plexiglass (from the same refrigerator) and a freezer vent – “broke on me the first time.” So, he began his design project over again. This time, he bolted the elements together. Similarly, Lindsey Mackall got rattled when a rattle she’d made from a freezer ice box and a lock mechanism on a stove “broke the night before it was due.”

Philip Knapp, 18, of Pickerington, Ohio, with his fridge-turned-guitar

Their instructor, Melanie Swick, adjunct professor of architecture, explained, “They both learned that elements under tension need support. It’s a basic design principal and what this project is all about.”

Some other lessons students are learning are on the lighter side: “It’s fun to shake metal. It’s like advanced kindergarten, and as for my musical ability…Well, I have no professional training, and it shows,” quipped Vince Pelino, 18, of Westerville, Ohio, who made a gong that looks more like a shield-and-sword combination.

He continued, “I come from a family of 11 kids so I’m used to making things over…When I first tried to weld a handle to the gong – which is made from the galvanized steel of a stove – it smoked and smelled terribly. I then turned to the most versatile construction tool of all: duct tape. I used the tape to attach a sheet-metal handle to the galvanized metal that was once the side of a stove.”

Claire Foy, 18, of Medina, Ohio, plucks her violin made from refrigerator and stove parts

Leading the class are Inci Ilgin, assistant professor of interior design; Dennis Mann, professor of architecture; James Postell, associate professor of interior design; Vincent Sansaloni, visiting assistant professor of architecture and interior design; David Lee Smith, professor of architecture and Melanie Swick, adjunct professor of interior design.