Abstract

Initially when the studio began, the first project was to perform a vivisection on various electronic objects. By going through this process, the intention was that we would gain an understanding of how these pieces of technology work. The objects that I chose for the vivisection was the idog and a guitar tuner. The idog is basically a mini speaker that plugs into an ipod. In addition to this, the idog also shakes its head and flashes different coloured LEDs in accordance to the rhythm of the music being played.

Some of the tests that I conducted on the idog were to create a soundtrack composed of a number of sounds and various instruments. By doing this, I hoped to understand the triggers that activate the idog. Through my experiments, I found that low bass sounds do not trigger the idog. In addition to this, the flashing of the LEDs are in sync with the beat of the music. Unfortunately, I also found that the LEDs and the pattern it flashed in were random in most cases.

In regards to my research, I started looking into a medical condition called synesthesia. Synesthesia is Greek in origin; syn meaning union and esthesia meaning sensation. Through my research, I found articles conducted by various artists who experienced this condition. Through their experimentation, they listened to music while they painted and through this process, it was believed that they were obtaining a high understanding of the arts. These experiments would later become more technologically complex which would lead to the development of the colour organ by professor Rimington. The colour colour was a musical device that did not only play music notes, but also co-ordinates coloured lights according to the notes played.

In regards to my technical research I’ve been focusing most of my time with photo sensors and relays. Initially, I attempted to use photo resistors in order to control the output of the speaker. By doing so, I wanted to create a relationship between sound and motion. Unfortunately my attempts did not work and as a result of this I used an LED to observe if power was running through the circuit. This would lead to a discovery of how the speaker system works. As I placed the LED in series with the speaker, I found that the LED started flashing in accordance to the certain frequencies. Knowing this, I decided to use this LED as a switch for a relay. From here, I found the acoustical properties of the relay interesting and from this I decided to use a solenoid to create sound.

Currently, the direction that I am pursuing is to expand the limitations of my idog and create a number of circuits that create sound that is triggered by the LEDs produced by idog. By doing this, my intentions is to create a loop that would no longer require the user to use an ipod as input, but rather the sounds that it produces.