A collaboration between Parsons The New School for Design, Tellart, and mono, SoundAffects was a recent experiment that used the sights and sounds of NYC's Fifth Avenue to generate digital music and video. The wall was covered in sensors that absorbed all kinds of data — color, temperature, proximity of passersby, cell-phone interference — and...

Those nostalgic for the days of vinyl and tape are coming up with some striking new concepts for the creation and collection of digital music. For example, Ryan Raffa’s Tangible Color Music Instrument allows a user to make music by placing colored blocks on an illuminated table. A return to tangibility in the age of...