IT IS an incongruous mix.

A laptop sits next to a table covered in a tangle of wires attached to musical instruments: a bell, a glockenspiel, a Chinese harp and a harmonica.

Meet the Phantasmophone, a mini orchestra with echoes of Heath Robinson, built to reproduce a single piece of classical music.

It is the work of Graeme Ronald, a graduate in Master of Design in sound and the moving image at Glasgow School of Art, who has gone back to the future with his degree show exhibit.

The founding member of band Remember Remember said: "The effect is supposed to be that the instruments are playing them-selves and have come to life."

Behind the circuitry, battery-powered hand fans are positioned next to the strings so that when the computer sends a signal they spin and the air plucks the strings.

When it all comes together, the Phantasmophone plays Erik Satie's Gymnopedies part I.

Computer-driven musical instruments aside, the work at this year's Glasgow School of Art Graduate Degree Show from more than 200 international masters graduates is innovative and thought-provoking.

Andy Welsby shows artwork made by a robotic drawing machine in his personal take on the independence debate.

It was programmed to randomly bounce around a confined space. As it reacted to its environment it sought stability, an action Andy saw paralleling the development of Scottish culture.

He said: "Prior to the course I was a lecturer and freelance film-maker. Now I want to pursue, at least in part, a studio-based practice. I feel as if I'm only starting it now."

There is an architectural feel to the detailed model created by Thomai Pnevmonidou.

The interior design graduate wanted to show the difference between how the world looks and how it appears to her.

She said: "I was trying to make something more like a fairytale. "The model is like a dream, like living in a different reality."

Maggie Laidlaw has produced three etched, illuminated glass panels and a book of poetry, after research into looking at how social media can help women deal with street harassment.

It was awarded a special prize for breaking down barriers.

She said: "I began to think about how common the silence is that surrounds violence against women. I thought back to how many times I've been harassed and I didn't see anything in it.

"I thought, how often does this happen?"

Maggie worked with five women aged 18 to 21 and examined their opinions and experiences before and after anonymously telling their stories on website Hollaback, set up to tackle street harassment.

Their findings formed the words etched in glass and reproduced in the book of poetry.

Some students have offered practical applications - a shoe atomiser to counteract germs brought into hospitals and a cycle locker that provides permanent parking. Others have examined their roots and the culture of those around them.

Wenjia Chen interviewed students at Glasgow Chinese School. She said: "I made a film with them, talking about their feelings of identity, of being British Chinese, and the question, 'are you British or Chinese?'"

"Their opinions were different from what I expected."

l The free show runs at The Lighthouse until September 28.

angela.mcmanus@eveningtimes.co.uk