project listing

Light Organ - Empire State Building Public Art

Currently an ongoing collaboration with Peter Coffin.

This project is an exploration of synesthesia as it is conceived in relation to sound and color.  There has been extensive research in this area for hundreds years, with many different theories from widely popular to widely unknown scientists. Our project aims at controlling the colors and tiers of the empire state building from a single piano, and then hosting performances which would be available in different mediums for people to watch and explore the tonal space, both through sound and sight.

For the first part of the project, I worked on the electronics of three different five foot tall plexi-glass models of the building.  These prototypes were connected to a midi-keyboard, where you could interact with the model in realtime, watch the colors change and interact to your performance.  Below is a link to the preliminary code for the project, a demo of the top tier in action, and a look at the microcontroller and electronics under the hood.

Code - Top Tier Demo - Electronics