Ankitha Vasudev – Looking Outwards – 04

Sonic Playground is an outdoor sound installation that was created by Yuri Suzuki in 2018. This project was made for the High Museum of Art in Atlanta. It features 6 interactive, playful and colorful sculptures that modify and transmit sounds depending on where the participant is standing, listening or speaking. Using horns and pipes the computed acoustics travel from one end to the other in a playful way and by kneeling down or sitting between two pipes one can hear the that sounds are transported from different parts of the sculptures, which creates a fun and unique listening experience.

I find this project interesting because it made use of a software that I am learning now – Grasshopper (as a parametric plug-in for Rhino). The code that was written for this is a 3D raytracing tool that allows the user to select a sound source and send sound in a certain direction or towards a certain geometry, in this case the shape of the acoustic mirrors or the bells at the start and end of the pipes to see how the sound is reflected and what is the interaction with the object.