Sound Sculpted – Just The Beginning

Here we have the promotional material we have created to be viewed alongside our Sound Sculpted prototype. Take a look and we would love to hear from you.

 

 

 

Sound Sculpted

As the project nears its end we’ve been working hard to finalise the wheel and unveil it to the world.

In preparation for a press release we worked on a few key images that help to communicate what the product is and what it produces.

Hero Shot

Plan View

User Shot

We’ve also produced a short video to take you through what inspired us, the questions it raised and how we went about answering those questions.

Playing With Clay

So now we’ve fixed the motors into position and made sure that they simply cannot move it’s time to through some clay into the mix!

If you watched the above video you’ll know that it didn’t really go how we had planned. We made a few adjustments to the arms to stop them from interfering with each and also to make sure they actually hit the clay enough to make some sort of change to its shape. Take 2…

Again, it’s not spectacular but hey, we’ve managed to interpret a song into something physical! If you ever wondered what Mama Do The Hump would look like if it was a clay sculpture and not a song well… now you know.

We still have just over a week left so we’ll play around with a bit more and see what happens.Watch this space!

Resolved Technical Prototype

After the success of the servos working together with the LDR’s we have been able to start combining our spiral form with our electronics. Below is the first run with us connecting our sculpting arms with the servos.

From this prototype test we were able to make the most informed adjustments. We designed another set of sculpting arms for variety and that better connect with the clay. The programme was also altered to react every 2 seconds rather than a quarter of a second as before. This was to reduce strain on the servos and also create a groove effect on the clay.  Below is the improved prototype playing to Aloe Blacc’s – I need a Dollar.

Our next step is to strengthen the servo motors and create supports for them. When we are satisfied with their strength we can begin creating outputs from clay!

Technical Prototype

This is our technical prototype for our project to make sure it works before we put it all together. Using the SoundView app we can generate an equaliser from the music coming from anything (in this case, an iPhone). There are 4 light sensors mounted on the screen to detect when the bars are high. Using a Picaxe we can then process the information from the sensors to drive the motors. Check out our video below to see it in action!

Ceramic Concept

We have begun looking at how we could use ceramics as an output as we like how the small changes in tone, pitch and volume could be translated on its circular movement while on a potters wheel.

Of course we had to try this out for ourselves and here is John showing off his new found pottery skills.

Below is the first attempts at understanding the forces and intricacy’s involved in using tools on the moving clay.

Experience Prototyping

Emotions & Sound

Cybraphon

Cybraphon is a project from Edinburgh-based artist collective FOUND, consisting of Ziggy Campbell, Simon Kirby and Tommy Perman.

Inspired by early 19th century mechanical bands such as the nickelodeon, Cybraphon is an interactive version of a mechanical band in a box. Consisting of a series of robotic instruments housed in a large display case, Cybraphon behaves like a real band. Image conscious and emotional, the band’s performance is affected by online community opinion as it searches the web for reviews and comments about itself 24 hours a day.