Mixed Signals
Environment Mini-Project
Conway Liao
Spring 2009 - Major Studio 2
MFA Design + Technology
Parsons School of Design
18 February 2009

Concept
• To develop an installation that interprets
data from ordinary senses (sight and
sound) and presents them by unordinary
means.
• Allow users to simultaneously “experience”
dierent locations without having to
actually be there.

Synesthesia
• A condition in which normally separate
senses are not separate. Sight may mingle
with sound, taste with touch, etc.
• The words synesthesia is a hybrid of Latin
and Greek -- the Latin “syn” (together) +
“esthesia”, from the Greek aisthesis
(sensation or perception)
• All babies are synesthetes
• Can be induced by certain hallucinogenic

What Does Sound Look

Louis Bertrand
Castel
• Ocular Harpsichord (1725)
• 60 small coloured glass panels
• a curtain opened when a key was
struck
• His instrument “painted sound” so
even a deaf listener could enjoy
music

Robert Hodgin
• Flight 404
• Algorithmically generates animation with
sound input using Processing
• Click Here

What Does an Image Sound
Like?

Venetian Snares

Venetian Snares
• Canadian Electronic Musician
• Spectrograph (ImageSynth) Program
• Analyzes and outputs sound waves
(representation of sound spectrum)
• Hidden images in sound
• Click Here

Aphex Twin

Daito Manabe

Daito Manabe
• Uses sound to control visuals
• Uses sound to control various body parts
• Uses body to manipulate sound
• Click Here

IsoPhone
Click Here

The Prototype + Experience

LONDON
SAN FRANCISCO NEW YORK TOKYO
Placement: Golden Gate Bridge Placement: Times Square Placement: Picadilly Circus Placement: Shibuya Pedestrian Crossing
Sound: Repeative waves Sound: Pedestrian + automobile traffic Sound: Light pedestrian + automobile traffic Sound: Heavy pedestrian traffic + automobile traffic
Visual: Trees swaying gently back and forth from the light wind Visual: Pedestrian + automobile traffic Visual: Bright neon lights Visual: Bright neon lights + rain reflection
Colour Temp: 8000 Kelvin Colour Temp: 2500 Kelvin Colour Temp: N/A Colour Temp: N/A

LONDON
SAN FRANCISCO NEW YORK TOKYO
192 BPM 228 BPM 288 BPM 96 BPM