Orbits drawn Together
A collaboration with artist Tim Vincent Smith for NEoN Digital Arts Festival.
A physical/ digital harmonograph for the Move Sound Together exhibition at NEoN Digital Arts Festival, 2012.
Oscillator art
This was a collaborative sound and visual installation created for Move Sound Together at the NEoN Digital Arts Festival in 2011. The project explored the intersections of motion, sound, and drawing through the recreation and transformation of a harmonograph; a 19th-century mechanical device that generates intricate geometric patterns through the interplay of pendulums.
Together with artist and maker Tim Vincent-Smith, I helped to design and build a hybrid digital–physical harmonograph, transforming a classic analogue instrument into an interactive, performative artwork. Our installation invited the public to set a drawing table in motion, generating live visuals and sound that echoed the harmonic relationships between physical movement and sonic vibration.
About the harmonograph
A harmonograph is a Victorian-era device that visualises sound and motion. It uses one or more swinging pendulums to move a pen across paper, tracing intricate curves known as Lissajous figures- physical manifestations of harmonic relationships between frequencies (see image).
Depending the ratio of the motion along each axis, the drawings can form circles, loops, knots, or spirals. These are visual equivalents of musical intervals and interference patterns.
Unlike purely mathematical Lissajous figures, which repeat infinitely once the ratio is set, harmonograph movements gradually decay as gravity and friction take effect. This produces more natural looking shapes and patterns, as they fad into silence and stillness.
The video here is one of Tim’s original harmonographs.
Collaboration and process
Tim, who has built many harmonographs before, invited me to collaborate on this project. His playful approach and deep understanding of musical theory, movement and materials shaped the work from the outset.
We suspended a large wooden table from the roof of the Chamber of Commerce building, placing an electronic tablet on its surface to record its movement. As the audience set the table in motion, a live projection transformed their gestures into dynamic digital drawings on the gallery wall.
My contribution centred on sound and the digital harmonograph. I composed a soundtrack of oscillating tones that reflected the visual rhythms of the digital harmonograph and connected contact microphones to Tim’s analogue harmonographs to pick up the resonant textures of pencil, paper, and wood, turning the physical act of drawing into live sound.
Exhibition
Move Sound Together was an exhibition of interaction, movement, and sound at NEoN Digital Arts Festival, featuring:
Memo Akten
Max Cant
Tom de Majo
Gayle Meikle
Tim Vincent-Smith
Venue: Chamber Building, Dundee
Festival: NEoN Digital Arts Festival 2011
Credits
Concept: Tim Vincent Smith
Design and Production: Tim Vincent Smith and Tom deMajo
Commissioned by: NEoN Digital Arts Festival, 2011