juyeonk-LookingOutwards-04

 

 

Title: Ambient Synthesis

Creator: Amanda Ghassaei

Year: 2012

Link to the project: http://www.amandaghassaei.com/projects/ambient_synthesis/

Link to the bio of the artist: http://www.amandaghassaei.com/about/

 

Ambient Synthesis is a sound sculpture created by Amanda Ghassaei that senses the change in light stimuli in its surroundings and transforms them into sound. The program that is in charge of this transformation is called ‘Inkblot’, which uses the MaxMSP application to convert the light data into slowly evolving synthetic tones.

This sculpture was inspired by the concept of ‘additive synthesis,’ which outlines that simple sounds can be added or mixed together in order to create a broader and a more complex range of sounds.

This mechanism is best observed during sunrise and sunset where there is a drastic change in the amount of light present around the machine. When the sculpture is stimulated, one or more pixel will appear on its screen. Each pixel represents a different frequency of the harmonic series. When these pixels become activated, the tones that correspond to each pixel are added to the mixture, producing a gradually evolving soundscape over time.