An electro-kinetic sound installation by the London based collective Someth;ng, Tape uses simple analogue playback to allow users an arena in which to play with self-recorded sound and explore the effects of playback and sound synthesis. Housed in a transparent acrylic panel, Tape allows its user not only to view the oft-hidden components needed to record sound, but also to manipulate them as they see fit. Using Tape’s continuous tape loop and assemblage of appropriated and hand built electro-mechanical analogue parts, the user can not only record and play sounds, but physically slide, twist and move these components within the panel to explore their roles and uses.



The experience moves away from the precision and care often needed to create audio tracks and allows for the innate curiosity and playfulness that drives us to experiment, in this case, with sound. As sound recording moves ever further into the digital sphere, Tape allows users to explore and play with the analogue processes we now take for granted in our everyday lives.

(via pixelsumo)

This installation by All of Us was created for the 18th century Norfolk House Music Room, Plink Plonk used mechanical music boxes as playful delicate input devices, producing their own sound output (the tune ‘You are my sunshine’). A visual narrative responded to the turn of each music box, with each scene containing different reactives. The top photo shows stars glowing around a single music box as it is being turned. The bottom photo shows the end eclipse sequence. Overall it went down really well and had some great feedback.

(via pixelsumo)

Soundgarten by Michael Wolf is a tangible interface that enables children to record, modify and arrange sound samples in a playful way. Designed as a toy, the garden has 19 plug holes that can fit sounds in the form of mushroom objects. Children can use the pre-defined environmental or musical sounds, or use a wireless microphone to record their own. The three levels of the garden control the sound volume.

Each mushroom object is colour coded and contains an icon to indicate the sound. Effects and filters (echo, resonance, play backwards, increase & decrease) can be applied to sounds using the leaf objects. More than one filter object can be used on each sound, helping the child understand musical and sound principles from an early age.

(via we-make-money-not-art and pixelsumo)

Sonicforms by Chris O’Shea is an open source research platform for developing tangible interfaces for audio visual environments. The aim of the project is to improve this area of musical interaction by creating a community knowledge base and open tools for production. By decentralising the technology and providing an easier entry point, artists and musicians can focus on creating engaging works, rather than starting from the ground up. Sonicforms exists as :

1. a central repository for others to learn how to make their own interfaces and share their experiences.
2. a set of tools and strategies for extending open source software to create these projects.
3. a physical installation that will be exhibited showing other artists creative content through online submission.

link to video demonstration

(via we-make-money-not-art)

In the Papalote Museo del Niño (a kids tangible museum in Mexico city), there is a Digital Dome that plays music for your eyes.

How could games be controlled by sound and instruments?

David Hindman and Spencer Kiser have created sonictroller, whose goal was “to improve upon our physical interface that allows the user to control a video game with sound”. David worked with Evan Drummond on Modal Kombat, “The First Ever Instrument-Controlled Video Game Battle”

(via pixelsumo)

The Hidden Worlds of Noise and Voice is an interactive audiovisual installation, or, alternatively, an augmented-reality speech-visualisation system.

It has been developed by Golan Levin and Zachary Lieberman in collaboration with the Ars Electronica Futurelab in Linz, Austria.

Its central theme is the magical relationship of speech to the ethereal medium which conveys it.

Participants in Hidden Worlds are able to “see” each others’ voices, which are made visible in the form of animated graphic figurations that appear to emerge from the participants’ mouths while they speak. In the installation, visitors wear special see-through data glasses, which register and superimpose 3D graphics into the real world. When one of the users speaks or sings, colorful abstract forms appear to emerge from his or her mouth. The graphics representing these utterances assume a wide variety of shapes and behaviors that are tightly coupled to the unique qualities of the vocalist’s volume, pitch and timbre.

(via Interactive Architecture)

Gamelan Playtime by Arlete Castelo and Melissa Mongiat draws in passers-by as they walk along Hungerford terrace on the South Bank in London. By moving their hands across a tactile surface pedestrians trigger sensors that release recordings of the Royal Festival Hall’s Gamelan set being played by school children. The sounds are made up of the Gamelan instruments, human voices and song.

(via we-make-money-not-art)