What if you were to eliminate the unwieldy parts of a guitar but maintain its resonant sound and the same exact way of playing, in order to make the instrument are more convenient traveling companion? It might sound ridiculous or downright impossible, but that’s exactly what designer Orit Dolev has done with NOMAD, a compact digital instrument with pressure-sensitive frets and flexible rubber strings to replicate the traditional guitar playing experience.

Dolev came up with the idea for NOMAD after taking a long journey through Asia and South America, where she imagined her guitar would offer a handy and powerful way to make new connections across language barriers. She quickly learned that getting around would be frustrating, noting that she couldn’t just shove it into her backpack, and the strings were constantly breaking and getting out of tune.

Designed to encourage mobility, the NOMAD features a wooden neck for a familiar feel in your hands. It pairs up with an app to play a wide variety of sounds, and you can turn the frets on and off to switch between acoustic and electric guitar modes or even to entirely different string instruments, like sitars. Hook it up to headphones so you can play on train rides or in hotels without disturbing anyone, or play through the accompanying portable amp, which doubles as a case cover.

“Technology is constantly changing the way we are living,” says Dolev. “Powerful mobile devices and widespread connectivity are serving as fertile ground for a new generation of nomads. From urban work-from-anywhere lifestyle to digital nomads roaming the globe freely, new cultural movements are rising. We are more mindful of the objects we surround ourselves with, striving to travel light and collect experiences more than things. Own less, explore more.”

Climb a ladder, swing on a hammock-like seat and run your hands along various wooden surfaces on this strange polyphonic playground, and your movements will create a unique song. Studio PSK teamed up with beatboxer Reeps One to create this multi-sensory play experience for this year’s London Design Festival, encouraging people to interact with an unusual physical fusion of music, design and technology.

Designer Patrick Stevenson-Keating d Reeps record a bunch of different sound banks of samples, which were then loaded onto the program Ableton Live and mapped to trigger points on the playground. A product called ‘Electric Paint,’ which sends signals to the computer, is screen-printed onto paper tiles and covered in protective acrylic, acting as giant keys on a keyboard.

The wooden playground frame is like one big musical instrument in this sense, setting off cascades of sound as participants clamber up the steps or take a trip down the slide. In addition to the conductive paint on the wooden elements, the team integrated copper tape into the slide and conductive thread in the swings.

“We were always very clear from the start that we wanted ‘play’ to be an important part of the project,” the designer tells Bare Conductive. “…Often we communicate quite complex ideas or narratives, but by employing a playful strategy to do so, we can engage with the audience in more meaningful ways. This was certainly the hope for the Polyphonic Playground.”