Glowing Sound Visualizer
I have made several researches on sound visualizations, the most popular ways are using sand and water, there are also ways of using light and fire. But light is hard to control in terms of many conditions and the projection will be depending, using fire looks cool but it is too dangerous, using water is also hard to control since it will mess up the electronics if not paying attention, so I will do the visualization using sand. And this is realized by using Chaldni Plate, it is a plate that resonates with an amplifier, and when sand is spread on it, it will form certain pattern based on the sound frequency. Also I tend to use the glowing sand, to make the device glow when the plate resonates with the amplifier. To make it look even cooler, I am going to put in a photo frame to make an infinite mirror box, and the glowing pattern of sand will be refelcting in the box. At the same time, the device is going to be controlled by an interface made by processing, and I am also considering using interaction based on makey makey kit, building my own unique sensors to make it more interesting while being interactive. The problem is to figure out how the interaction will be and how the interface will look like. And I think the intended users might be families who needs artistic amplifiers to decorate there rooms or stages that need special light effect.
Firstly, I am going to finish the visualizer as soon as possible. I need to get a photo frame to be used as the plate to hold the sand, and it should be flat and well-balanced, then I need to get an amplifier to combine it with the frame and test whether the sand will change patterns based on different frequencies. This is the most important part which will directly influence the visual part of the project. After making sure the visualizer works, I need to work on the interface and the interaction part, these two should be related to make it understandable and also I need to make it interactive, which is also very important. I think I will do more research on music interfaces and more interesting ways of interacting with sound. The visualizer should be finished at most around the beginning of december, so that everything can be finished in time.
I think that visualizing sound in real life is very interesting and it might be inspiring when we actually see the sound instead of just hearing, offering a different way to feel sound will be an amazing experience. The interaction is direct, you change the sound frequency based on the interface, then the pattern of sand will change according to it, so the user will feel the sound not only by hearing it, but also seeing it. I’m inspired by Nagel Stanford from his video Cymatics about different ways of sound visualization, what I am doing it now is to re-create on one of the ways and adding more ways to feel it, like visual effects, and also make it more interactive instead of just playing specific notes for specific frequencies. If the project is completed successful, I think I will try to build upon making it more appliable, and is for those who want to have another way to feel sound in their life.