Bass in your Face
Participatory stage show for events and schools – sound waves, circuits, vibrations, electromagnetism and the design of loudspeakers.
‘Bass in Your Face’ is a fun and accessible science show performed by Steve Summers of Noisy Toys.
The show involves a lot of audience participation and has been featured at some of the largest science events in the UK*, as well as at national science museums and many Primary and Secondary schools.
*including: Big Bang Fair (the UK’s largest STEM event), Maker Faire UK, the Science & Media Museum (Bradford) the Museum of Science & Industry (Manchester), Festival of Tomorrow, Camp Bestival science area, Big Bang Yorkshire & Humber, Big Bang South East.
What is this mysterious thing called Bass and why does it make us feel so groovy? What is it that pushes speakers and turns motors? To find out we will fill the theatre with Booming bass vibrations, electrocute some noses, turn ourselves into air molecules, try a bad magic trick and get messy from an eruption of flour and lentils.
We will take a tour of the frequency spectrum from gut-shaking bass to nasty squeaky treble and discover that children have super-powers of hearing compared to adults.
During the show, Steve uses various props and visualisations to help the audience understand the abstract concepts of sound and electrical current.
In particular, he will use a large speaker driver (transducer) driven by a powerful amplifier, with a frequency-variable sine wave input and a hacked hard drive.
Flour and lentils in the driver show the energy that usually shakes the air in the room so we can hear the music.
Yes, it gets messy.
Participation
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.
There are several opportunities for volunteers to come up onto the stage and help with demonstrations.
The audience will be magically turned into air molecules to experience the push and pull of sound waves.
If time and space permit, then the Bass Buzz can become a separate activity after the show, and can even lead into an Oobleck demonstration.
Getting everyone ‘Buzzed’ is a valuable addition to finish a show, being an intense sensation, but also helping to give a deeper understanding of much of the prior content of the show.