Ice cream can be the reward after a successful little league game, a consolation¹ after a bad breakup, or, in the hands of gourmet² geeks, a sweet musical instrument. Designers Carla Diana and Emilie Baltz recently whipped up a musical performance where a quartet of players jammed using just a quart of vanilla³（香草） ice cream and some high-tech⁴ cones⁵.

 

Capacitive sensors⁶ were embedded⁷ in 3-D printed cones that were perched atop pedestal-like boxes. Musicians stood inside the boxes, arms at their sides, and licked away. When a tongue made contact with the creamy treat a signal was sent to a hidden Arduino, assigned a sound by onboard software, and pumped out through speakers.

 

Lickestra's secret ingredient was cayenne pepper. "We found that the heat of the spice in the ice cream elicited⁸ a much more vigorous licking action and inspired some rather gusto-filled performances," says Diana.

 

While Gene⁹ Simmons was born to play these instruments and Ben & Jerry would seem to be natural collaborators, Diana and Baltz teamed up with Buke & Gase, a musical duo known for their work with unusual instruments to help establish the sound. The brief was simple: translate licking into music. "They crafted a four-part composition of music that included sounds reminiscent of winter icicles（冰锥） and slippery surfaces（光滑面）," says Diana. Each Lickestra performer was assigned one sound from the composition and could play it as a short burst or longer musical phrase by simply licking the ice cream in different ways.

 

Diana and Baltz's studio was a cross between a Michelin rated kitchen and a mad scientist's lab. In order to make the performance successful, the tech had to be hidden and great pains were taken to ensure the wires were all hidden inside the cones. They also had to become experts at packing the ice cream into the instruments to ensure that the circuits would be complete throughout the show. "We faced many challenges throughout the development of the Lickestra, but that just meant eating more ice cream until we had things resolved," says Diana.

 

Vanilla ice cream was originally selected to maintain visual harmony between the pedestals（底座） and cones, and to make the movements of the performers more impactful. However, Diana and Baltz partnered with the Big Gay Ice Cream shop to develop an original flavor for the performance which was infused with Cayenne peppers. "We found that the heat of the spice in the ice cream elicited a much more vigorous licking action and inspired some rather gusto-filled performances," says Diana.

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