Project Mockup

My instrument project’s first draft was made of amazon and cereal boxes and paper towel rolls, and it was performed in our last Photosonic Composition class. The plan is for that cardboard “X” to be replaced with wood, and on top of the structure will sit the breadboard and other circuitry along with four amplifiers. The four paper towel rolls represent four differently-colored LED light bulbs, which will be able to stand up and be slid closer to and farther from the center of the piece. At each corner, there will be a photoresistor light sensor, which will vary its output resistance as the light bulbs shine more or less light. The circuit will include a CD4093BE micro chip and capacitors along with the photoresistors to create buzzing tones through the amplifiers.

I will be able to slide each LED closer to and farther from the center of the project so that different intensities of light will be picked up by the photoresistors, changing their resistance and thus changing the pitches. By doing so, I will be able to create four-note chords and even melodies. Since each lightbulb is a different color, they will have different relative brightnesses, so I will use lower-light bulbs to create the lower notes of the chords such as the tonic, and brighter bulbs for higher notes and melodies. I hope to create an aesthetically pleasing instrument that creates enjoyable sounds to listen to, even though the high-pitched buzzing is not typically a pleasant sound alone.

This piece serves as an intersection of two sides of myself: art and music with math and engineering; of visual and sonic mayhem with structure and order. Much of what we listen to in class is chaotic, so I intend to depart from this trend. The sounds created by the circuits that we have been working with are not typically warm but rather shrill, so I seek to create warmth by exploring what several screeching speakers can create together.