Otto
A collaboration with Manolis Kelaidis of IDE at the Royal College of Art.
Every object and surface in our environment has a whisper; subtle tremors and vibrations that are usually undetectable to the human ear, produced by the activity and movement of daily life.
What if these sounds were audible? How would that change our aural awareness, perception of space and attitude towards objects? Would it be possible to ‘compose’ our own soundtrack using our walls and objects as a new form of instruments? Madsounds is a proposal for a different appreciation of our environment, space and objects by making it possible to identify, combine and manipulate these sounds.
We designed OTTO (Greek for ‘ear’); a device that makes hidden sounds audible. This is achieved via a thin polymer piezoelectric contact that senses weak vibrations and plays them as a sound through an integrated speaker. OTTO can be positioned on almost any surface through a combination of suction and magnets. By placing several units on different objects, one can select and create a new sonic experience and a form of ambient music appreciation, thereby utilising our space as a multidirectional audio platform.
Exhibited at the IDE Performance Show, February 2006
Madsounds also have a very interesting blog, with a better explanation of what exactly Otto is (amongst some other curious things).
Mmm… I like this. A lot.
Put this one on my ever-expanding wish list of Things-I-Really-Need.
Edit: this is two years old (didn’t notice that before), so this might be a relic now. The blog is still there, but links to sounds and videos don’t work anymore. A pity.