2017 — Concepting — Computational Design — Personal Project
Sound Matters is a series of digital objects modeled by sampled sounds, that offers a look into the complexity of omnipresent events that surround us.
This project is triggered by the desire of explore alternative ways to portray and collect sounds. Each artwork starts from a sound sampled in a peculiar situation. Each recording is then processed to extrapolate its abundance of details — Sound Matters is about contemplating the richness of sound with a different conception of time. A precious memory to explore with your eyes.
Sound Matters is a tribute to sounds, those that are lost, the ones we pay no attention to, or the ones too important to be forgotten.
The project presents specific moments stored in a physical shape, creating a medium made by time and space — These stones keep memories. Sampled sounds presented as samples of matter.
The process —
Once the sampling of the sound is done, the recording is processed with a Max/MSP patch that generates squared images from level values of the audio samples. The resulting images are taken then on Cinema 4D as procedural texture for the base stone 3D model.
All recordings are done with a Zoom H4N at 44.100 Hz and cut to a 25” length. Samples are then processed with a Max/MSP patch to create squared texture images for Cinema 4D.
The patch collects the absolute value of the waveform amplitude for any given sample and multiplies it by a constant to obtain the output color which will range from black if amplitude is 0, to white if 1.
In Cinema 4D the MAX/MSP output are applied as a procedural texture over a globular model. The cells are used as height map to displace the actual geometric position of points over the textured surface. The primary mesh is physically displaced by the waveform amplitude and the highest values are adopted as falloff map and marked by a different shader.
The lost Sound —
We are constantly surrounded by sounds.
This is a personal environmental archive.
The sound of Cannon beach 45.886162, -123.966319 14:35 18°C
The sound of a departing freight train 47.616291, -122.357194 11:40 22.8°C
The sound of water by the piers 47.616555, -122.357078 11:41 22.8°C
The sound of birds in the park 47.631230, -122.315825 14:35 22.8°C
The sound of the ocean shore 13.194496, -59.641184 18:44 29°C
The sound of the neighborhood 40.776229, -73.977502 19:36 11°C
The sound of a subway ride 40.757172, -73.989733 8:51 6.7°C
The sound of a hidden alley 40.718334, -74.002112 18:53 22°C
Download — Share
If you want to share this project, you can download short videos of the 8 samples here.
The sound of a departing freight train
The sound of water by the piers
The sound of birds in the park
Credits —