Frozen waves: exploring the transformation between sound and object

Date
2014
Authors
van Melle, Gerbrand
Marks, Stefan
Supervisor
Item type
Conference Paper
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Publisher
Textile and Design Lab and Colab at Auckland University of Technology
Abstract

In the project Frozen Waves, audio recordings are translated into physical objects and vice versa. Time is temporarily captured in space – space is released back into time. In doing so, the potential of visual music (Friedlander, 1998) and second order cybernetics (Von Foerster, 1975; Glanville, 2004) are used to develop a new experience that synthesizes sound and visual components into dynamic material form. In this “aesthetically potent environment” (Pask, 1969, p. 76), the research engages with digital ontology, sound visualization, sampling methods, and generative design practice. Similar works are Studio Realität (2008), Fischer (2010), Azzaro (2013), Paul (2012), and Ghassaei (2012).

The idea explored in this project is that objects are continuously changing processes in time. Through consecutive iterations of sound recordings, sound spectrum analysis, parametric 3D model creation, and materializing methods such as 3D printing, temporary physical representations of the acoustic world around the observer surface and are recomposed. These objects can, in turn, be immaterialized back to sounds that they were generated from, albeit in a form that is modified and shaped by their transformation process.

Emerging design work implies a semiotic polyvalence that is realized through a process of techno-transformative and generative methods. As such new patterns are created, comprising single parts that are restructured into rhythmic patterns. The individual samples do not act as quotes; instead they operate as generative material for systemic combination.

This project aims to act as a Front End creative inquiry (Sanders & Stappers, 2012) and its purpose is to trigger the audience to consider the potentials of sound as a form of unique, material user experience.

Description
Keywords
Sound , Shape , Transformation , Transmodularity , Circularity
Source
Shapeshifting: A Conference on Transformative Paradigms of Fashion and Textile Design, 14-16 April 2014, Auckland, New Zealand
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