scoreLight at Miraikan

“scoreLight” is a prototype musical instrument capable of generating sound in real time from the lines of doodles as well as from the contours of three-dimensional objects nearby (hands, dancer’s silhouette, architectural details, etc).

There is no camera nor projector: a laser spot explores the shape as a pick-up head would search for sound over the surface of a vinyl record – with the significant difference that the groove is generated by the contours of the drawing itself. The light beam follows these countours in the very same way a blind person uses a white cane to stick to a guidance route on the street.

Sound is produced and modulated according to the curvature of the lines being followed, their angle with respect to the vertical as well as their color and contrast. This means that “scoreLight” implements gesture, shape and color-to-sound artificial synesthesia [4]; abrupt changes in the direction of the lines produce trigger discrete sounds (percussion, glitches), thus creating a rhythmic base (the length of a closed path determines the overall tempo).

via daito:

“scoreLight” by Alvaro Cassinelli, Daito Manabe, Kuribara Yusaku & Ishikawa Masatoshi.