In the air tonight

February 2009

This project was part of a one month workshop focused on sound. Each group had to with sound and a specific sense or element, in our case we focused on the possibilities of sound and air.

Two capsules with fans and proximity sensors were built. The visitors that approach the installation feel the air coming from the capsules and use their hands to alterate the properties of the ambient music in the room.

The installation run a Max/MSP sketch controlled by an Arduino board and proximity sensors.

—
Benjamín López, Pierre-Alexandre Poirier and Jordi Parra

Building the prototypes

At first we tried to go analog: alterating a flow of smoke with sound waves, using the air moved by the speakers to give feedback... But it didn't work as expected. That's why we moved to digital.

In the first sketches we used different types of sensors to alterate properties of sound. It worked but somehow it lacked physical feedback. The user was not feeling anything else than sound inputs.

Adding two fans in a wood box gave a better feeling of proximity while the properties of the music were changing. It felt like by compressing the air you were alterating sound, and the fans gave good feedback of the range you could modify without even looking at the sound box.

The installation

Both capsules were set up floating in the air, in a dark room, with LEDs in its interior. The light, the shape, the air coming out of the capsules and the instant sound feedback were enough to understand how to interact with the installation.