Shows & Demonstrations
ALL shows and demonstrations involve participatory elements, and are performed by Steve Summers.
- Stage shows
- Street shows
- School shows
- Participatory demonstrations
Photo: Big Bang Fair, NEC, 2016
Full 30 – 45 minutes stage shows:
sound, speakers, vibrations, electromagnetism
e-waste, tech-scavenger skills, circuits
what is music? From Baroque to techno, we groove
Live/Dead Cat World Premiere
Quantum physics for beginners (available Spring 2027)
Bass in your Face
Participatory stage show for events and schools
Recommended age 8+ and mixed ages
Sound waves, vibrations, circuits, electromagnetism, design of loudspeakers, DIY hacked instruments, bass & noise
In march 2027 this show will feature at the Hong Kong Science Museum for Croucher Science Week. Previously the show has been featured at: Big Bang Fair (the UK’s largest STEM event) + regionals, Maker Faire UK + regionals, the Science & Media Museum, the Museum of Science & Industry (Manchester), Festival of Tomorrow, Camp Bestival & many more, as well as countless schools.
“Bass in Your Face’ is a great show! Providing an intriguing and interactive demonstration of the science around sound waves; the pupils were especially fascinated by the use of upcycled speakers and household gadgets. This worked well as part of the Big Bang @ Eastbourne for over 600 Key Stage 3 students with varying interest and ability in science.”
Bronagh Liddicoat, Head of STEM Sussex, University of Brighton
What is this mysterious thing called Bass, and why does it make us feel so groovy? To find out we will fill the theatre with Booming bass vibrations, send lentils flying, expose some fake magic and wake up some dancing Oobleck monsters.
We will dip our toes into the mysteries of electromagnetism with some backwards engineering; what happens when you hack a hard drive motor and wire it up the wrong way? Some seriously deep bass is what happens.
The whole audience gets to take part at the end; you can come up to the front and experience the ‘Bass-Buzz’, feeling powerful sound vibrations through your fingers.
Photo: Great Exhibition Road festival, 2026
60 Million Tonnes
Electrical waste, consumerism,
human & environmental consequences.
The Repair Movement, up-cycling & Hardware Hacking
(it used to be called ’50 Million Tonnes’, soon it will be 70…)
Lively stage show balancing some hard-hitting information about e-waste with messages of hope and empowerment. The scale of e-waste is truly shocking, and still under-reported. The show includes demonstrations of quirky up-cycled noise instruments and how you can make your own.
Photo: Eureka Discovery Museum, Wirral, 2023
With 60 million tonnes of electronic waste produced every year why do we need to buy anything? We just need to know how to hack waste into something fun! We will break open some of those magical consumer electronic treasures and find out what’s going on inside. How can we have power over our technology, instead of being enslaved by it? Simple; we learn how it works and how to fix it.
In this show Steve Summers demonstrates a selection of upcycled Noisy Toys built from e-waste, we learn about what is inside some everyday electronic items, where some of the materials come from and where they go to when the thing breaks.
Science of Music
- music is maths, music is organised noise, music is…
- finding the inner ear (using the force…)
- demonstrations of instruments from baroque to modern
- low-pressure participation games for the audience
- how musical history is shaped by technology
There is less difference in different kinds of music than you think. We ask what music is and how it works
Photo: Eureka Discovery Museum, Wirral, 2023
Live / Dead Cat
World Premiere
Finally, we have taken the famous Schrödinger’s cat out of it’s thought experiment and put it in a real box and actually KILLED IT…
…. maybe
Image: MMF modes, Mehul Malik and Saroch Leedumrongwatthanakun, Heriot-Watt University
Show available Spring 2027
- participation activities for the whole audience
- ages 10+ recommended
- accessible for anyone; no previous understanding required
- no cats will be harmed during the performed experiment. Probably.
- You may not understand everything about quantum physics by the end, but you will have lots to think about