Description
Building Blocks is an interactive sound and visual project. The piece will consist of a few wooden boxes of two different sizes that the audience can stack together. When a box is in contact with another, it will activate a new sound level in the room, and trigger light patterns inside the box. Therefore, the more boxes are stacked, the more lights will blink, and the more complex the sound will be.
Also, each box will have on it’s front panel a photograph of where the sound sample attributed to the box was taken. It will be printed on acetate so that the lights located inside can shine through the more transparent sections.
Concept
Each photograph will feature a building that is part of the heritage of Montreal, and the sound sample attributed to it will be taken from that location. I feel that there is more than one meaning to this project. When explaining it to a friend he thought this was a statement against costly architecture projects that when “stacked up” make one nasty bill for us citizens. Some others saw more of an ode to beautiful architecture in our unique city.
To me, this project isn’t about it’s significance, it is about making objects that are visually appealing and offer a new level interactivity and creativity to others.
The reason why I chose buildings as a key part of this project was because of memories. My first concept was to use my own memories and display them in the boxes, but, after attending a few times an unpleasant performance class, I decided that my next few projects should stray away from me. Therefore, I decided that this work should be about collective memories, the memories of the city itself. Hopefully, people will be able to associate each photograph and sound with a personal memory.
Aesthetic
To make the boxes, I am using Russian plywood. It has a beautiful grain and, once sanded, looks very sophisticated. The dimensions for the big boxes will be 5″x10″x5″ while the smaller ones will be 5″ cubes.
On each sides of the box, except for the one with the photograph, there will be metal strips. They will all be connected on the inside to different components so that electricity passes through. one metal strip will be for the 5V, another for the ground, and another will be for the analog input. Henceforth, using this technique, it is possible to make this project work with no wires which will add to it’s aesthetic appeal as well as to it’s practicality.
The lights inside the box will be ultra bright white L.E.Ds. To diffuse the light, the inside of the box will be coated with shiny electric tape (other types of metal would be impossible to use because they would probably cause short circuits), and a layer of sand-blasted acrylic will be installed inside before the photograph.
Technicalities
This project has many levels, and that is why it will take a long time to realize. I am using Max/MSP for the sound aspects of the project, and micro chips for the lighting part.
Each box will have a resistor of a different value in it, connected to the ground, 5V and analog input metal strips in parallel. The first box to be stacked will always need to be put on a very thin platform that will be connected to Arduino. When Arduino senses that the resistance has changed from it’s initial value, it will calculate the difference and, therefore, will be able to determinate which sound to play. For example, let’s say that box1 has a resistance value of 50, while box2 has a value of 100. If Arduino senses that the resistance is now at 50 then it will play the sound sample 1. If it senses that the resistance is 100 then it will play sound sample 2. If it senses that it is at 150, then it will play the two samples at the same time.
The L.E.Ds will be connected inside the box to a microchip. When a box is in contact with another or with the platform, it receives 5V and the microchip goes on and starts the sequence with which is turns the L.E.Ds on and off. The sequence will be programmed independently to go with the sound sample of the box.
To do list
- Record sounds
- Edit sounds
- Order L.E.Ds
- Take photographs
- Edit photographs
- More to come