Sounds of Rochester
Recent graduate of the School of Music and Fine Art, Drew York, wanted to find a way of visualising sounds as a solid, tangible object, as part of The Inflatable Archive Exhibition. Pre recorded sounds taken in and around Rochester were used to generate a series of 'sculpted' shell-like structures.
Behind the Scenes
Plenty of research went into understanding how audio files work. A custom plug-in for Maya was developed to facilitate in the reading of an audio file, extrapolating the audio frequencies and mapping the data onto a 3D mesh. The following graphic demonstrates how each sound affects a flat surface.
3D Printing
Each shell was formed by using a sound's unique frequencies to disturb the outer surface of a sphere. The final shells were 3D printed, and displayed as part of the The Inflatable Archive Exhibition in the Rochester Art Gallery. The exhibition ran from 23rd January to 21 March 2015.
