mreyes-looking outward 04-The Global Synthesizer Project

The Global Synthesizer Project,Yuri Suzuki, 2016

The Global Synthesizer Project complies environmental sounds from around the globe into an interactive sound based installation. The installation exhibits various modules that represent different parts of the globe. The user may interact with the piece through high frequency cables that allow the user to customize a mini symphony.

Yuri Suzuki teamed up with Moog music to pair samples with modular synthesis and program a reverb algorithm which allows users to “time stretch”. this allows the user to edit the start and stop time of the sample and giving the user some control of the pitch. The reverb is also a convolution, which takes reponses from real space and applies it to an incoming signal.

I admire Suzuki’s ability to engage interaction in a gallery setting as that is not what is common in that setting and therefore hard to encourage. I Suzuki has claimed that he had long wanted to use sounds from around the world in a installation. While this project accomplishes that there are still more boundaries to push in this project both in level of interaction and in concept. I personally hope he continues to develop this work.