PLAY & SEE

Interactive sound and moving-image installation Play & See lets anyone step up to the piano to bring new worlds to life – no experience needed. Each note you play shapes a shifting scene: flocks of birds might take flight, trees might grow, you may soar through an infinite tunnel.

Whether you’re just tapping out a few notes or playing a full piece, this interactive installation transforms your exploration on a real piano into something vivid, unexpected, and alive.

Play & See premiered at Arnolfini Bristol . This short video shows what it’s all about:

We are currently planning tour dates for Play & See for the coming season. If you know a venue or institution that would like to host, please get in touch !

A presentation of Play & See can also be paired with 4–8 week creative‑coding workshops , where participants design their own interactive visual scenes. These scenes can then be incorporated into a public presentation of Play & See within their local community, creating a clear pathway from learning and experimentation to shared cultural experience.

Participant Feedback:

“Amazing to ‘see’ sound. Beautiful, uplifting experience.”

“Super rad – unpretentious & fun, everything art should be.”

“Mesmerising – made me a better musician. Made me able to play & improvise in a way I never have before.”

“I would give it 11 golden stars.” (Ruby, 5)

Play & See: Hospital Edition

Play & See: Hospital Edition is a collaboration between Charlie Hooper-Williams, the Royal United Hospital (RUH) Bath and Francesca Simpkins, RUH Musician‑in‑Residence. The core music-visuals system will be adapted into a portable, plug‑and‑play hospital-safe unit, allowing staff to deploy it easily and safely in the RUH Childrens’ Ward.

By combining music with reactive visuals, the installation aims to offer moments of distraction, self‑expression, and calm within a clinical environment. The team will prototype both meditative scenes and playful, game‑like interactions, testing how different modes of engagement shape patient experience.

Find Out More

For venues, hospitals, festivals, and partners interested in hosting or commissioning Play & See, a detailed information deck is available here :

Play & See is proud to acknowledge development support from The Studio Innovation Fund 2026: