FANGAI
Interactive Light & Sound Installation
Technique: metal, printed fabric, Sengled interactive light bulbs/speakers,
max MSP, ultra sonic sensors, arduino, sound
FANGAI is an interactive installation created for the main exhibition of Romanian Design Week 2016, in partnership with Sengled Europe. Structured as a light & sound experience, it has as a starting point the idea of a light fixture designed as a pentagonal mushroom and adapted for the Sengled Pulse - an interactive wireless audio speaker light bulb. The installation consists of 12 mushrooms, each of them generating light and sounds. The soundscape is designed as an augmented interpretation of how the mushrooms' gills would sound if that could be possible to be perceived by the human ear.
All the sounds are processed audio recordings of real objects that can produce repetitive sounds, like shuffled books, colanders, ventilators, griddles, etc. All the sounds are triggered by the visitors moving inside the installation. Every mushroom has multiple sounds played randomly, in order to create each time a new dynamic and organic soundscape.
The installation is a statement on how the new generations of daily objects can give birth to experiential languages.
The Lamp
The twelve mushrooms were made of stainless steel, in order to obtain a cavernous acoustics, and printed polyester satin for the cover, that would not alter the sound quality.
The pentagonal shape of the mushrooms was chosen as a symbol of the link between the organic world and the technology, between the irregular shapes of nature and geometry.
Making Of
The installation is about the poetic functionality of an interactive audio lamp shade, inspired by the paradoxical relationship between mushrooms and sunlight, and develop it into an interactive sensorial experience.
FANGAI is part of an art series focused on exploring the human perception of nature through technology. The idea of FANGAI was triggered by the exceptions in biology, like the mushrooms, which are plants that contain no chlorophyll, therefore they don't need the process of turning the sunlight into food.
Sound Design & Programming
All the sounds are triggered by the visitors moving inside the installation. The mushrooms generate multiple sounds, each time a different variation played randomly, therefore the soundscape achieves a continuous dynamic quality.
The sound design started from the idea of finding daily objects that can produce repetitive sounds, like shuffled books, juicers or reeded trays. It was important to record acoustic sounds and then process them to achieve an organic interactive soundscape.