Sound Reactive Lamp - Instrument Design

Light plays a crucial role in shaping live music experiences. It determines the feeling and mood of any environment. I recently came across the Highly Sensitive Person Scale (HSPS) questionnaire developed by Elaine Aron. The questions resonated deeply, and I answered “yes” to most. That was when I learned about the term Sensory Processing Sensitivity, which, according to Wikipedia, is "an increased sensitivity of the central nervous system and a deeper cognitive processing of physical, social, and emotional stimuli."

When I learned this I thought: this could explain why I don’t like big music festivals, with all those flashing lights, super loud noises, and information overload. This inspired the following experiment: how might we design both musical instruments and live experiences for highly sensitive people? What might this look like in terms of lighting?

La luz juega un papel clave en la manera en que vivimos la música en vivo: es lo que define el ambiente de cualquier espacio. Hace poco descubrí el cuestionario de la Escala de Personas Altamente Sensibles

, creado por Elaine Aron. Las preguntas resonaron mucho y la mayoría las respondí con "sí". Así fue como aprendí sobre la Sensibilidad de Procesamiento Sensorial. Según Wikipedia, esto es "una mayor sensibilidad del sistema nervioso centraly un procesamiento cognitivo

más profundo de estímulos físicos, sociales y emocionales".

Al aprender sobre esto pensé: ah, esto podría explicar por qué no me gustan los festivales grandes de música, con todas esas luces relampagueantes, ruidos muy fuertes, y exceso de información. De ahí surgió la idea para este experimento: ¿cómo podríamos diseñar instrumentos musicales y experiencias en vivo para personas altamente sensibles? ¿Cómo podría verse esto en términos de iluminación?

INTERACTION

I learned from Sarah Belle Reid, through her a m a z i n g Learning Sound and Synthesis course, to choose the kind of interactions I would like to engage in, either for a recorded piece or a live performance. Sarah talks about the importance of focusing on gestures, and asking yourself: How does my instrument respond or listen to me?

I wanted to design an interaction with an instrument that invites you tune into a kind of “hyper awareness” of the present moment, a contemplation of our aliveness and all the infinite changes that are constantly happening in both visual and sound fields.

TECH STACK

After researching the light and audio landscape, I chose the following tech stack for this first iteration:

Software: Ableton Live, Max for Live, and Node for Max.

Hardware: Microphone, audio interface, and laptop. (For future iterations, the Max patch could be be exported to a standalone hardware device using RNBO and a microcontroller such as the Daisy, bypassing the laptop and audio interface altogether).
For the lights, I wanted to avoid harsh DJ lights so I went with a home lamp with diffused light, and a Philips Hue light bulb.

Philips Hue released an Entertainment API which enables apps to control smart lights in real time, making it possible for lights to sync up with music, TV, movies and video games, and more. This path sounded suitable for my use case since I was looking for a very responsive way of adjusting the light’s color and brightness with sound.

I would also need a Hue Bridge. This hardware device is a “hub” or central controller for all Philips Hue lights. It plugs into your Wi-Fi router and then acts as a link or “bridge” between the lights and any device or application.

To learn more about the Philips Hue Entertainment API, you can sign up for a Hue developer account and access the documentation here.

If you are curious about the technical implementation, visit this link to explore the code, Max patch, and more!

CONTROLLING BRIGHTNESS WITH VOICE

Experiment 1.0

Experiment 1.1

CONTROLLING HUE WITH VOICE

Experiments 2.0 and 2.1

First iterations of the Max patch

PLAYING THE LAMP WITH A GUITAR

Experiment 3.1

Experiment 3.0

PLAYING THE LAMP WITH A BASS

Experiment 4.1

Experiment 4.0

Second iteration of the Max Device in Ableton Live