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Above: functioning test of seat-transducer element of proposed design. Prototype consists of small stool with transducer embedded in seat, amplifier visible toward the back. On the extending arm is a bank of oscillators that the user can adjust volume and pitch for. Low frequency seat transduction is common in high-level gaming setups, 4d theater and boutique Drum stool monitoring setups, what is different here is the active selection of different frequencies, all of which resonate differently in different parts of ones body (different from body to body). What's more is that in a situation where a low frequency transduction meets the base of the spine, spinal position is relevant to subjective experience, turning the users body into a component of the instrument; a hunched spine will feel like a rumble in the rear end and lower abdomen, but a straight spine will allow the vibrations to travel up the spine, resulting in the actual perception of pitch in the skull, a groundshakingly low frequency that only a massive subwoofer system could recreate, but in this case is totally silent to all but the user.
Below, a test subject uses the protoprototype.
Touch Based Interfaces:
The proposed interface for the silent throne would be skin conductance based. Traditionally, synthesizers have always consisted of a "brain," the circuitry that produces the sound, and a "control surface" which is an array of buttons, knobs or other components through which the user interacts with the circuit. My work has been focused on building electronic instruments where the circuit is the control surface and vice versa, flattening the concept of inner and outer into one plane.
In the above instrument, entitled CPL crosstalk, two independent circuits are at play, on the left and the right side. These circuits have no electrical connectivity and under normal conditions operate independently. The user plays the instrument by using left and right hands on the exposed copper traces to "complete the circuit." The natural conductivity of the body allows the skin to act as new components in the circuit, drastically impacting how one or both side sounds. This type of interface is highly sensitive to pressure, moisture, hydration, atmospheric humidity, and some argue inner bodily states.
With silent throne my aim is to construct an interface that allows users to select and modulate frequencies in a manner conducive to a totally self-aware and introspective state; Contemporary electronic interfaces prioritize the visual and the cognitive; this interface will bring the embodied to the fore.
Some examples of other skin-conductivity based instruments are below.
This project is a natural progression in my work with the pliable membrane between human bodies and electronics. In addition to conductivity based work, I designed an instrument called the Generator Organ, an off-grid, entirely hand-crank powered synthesizer. Building from the realization that we take for granted that a power station miles away will continue churning out watts in perpetuity, and inspired by a hand crank emergency radio my dad had, the Generator Organ requires the user to continue cranking the affixed handle if they would like it to produce sound.
What seems like an annoyance presents the user with a new mode of interaction with a circuit, as well as a number of musically useful constraints; the variable power rail offered by a human power supply allows the player to use crank speed to naturally change and dim the output of the organ.
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