Exhibits | Soundspace

"Play the room as if it were a musical instrument...”

–Scott Lindroth, Vice Provost for the Arts, Duke University

Enter the interactive exhibit Soundspace and see how your movement creates sounds and images! This popular exhibit is making a comeback -- with new additions developed with the help of Duke Arts. Not only can you "hear" your movements, but new visualizations encourage you to explore how your motion changes what you see and hear as you move.

Soundspace features nine web-enabled cameras that send information to a cluster of computers. Using software, the computers determine the location, speed and kinds of movement that are happening in the room. This information generates pleasing sounds, like marimbas and harps. Your movements also guide shapes around a projected image, creating abstract art tied to your location and movement. Watch yourself turn and spin and see as shapes track where you've been.

The amount and type of motion in each area changes the intensity and volume of the experience. In some cases, spinning beneath a camera sends sound swirling around the room. Other times, watch as you draw with colored shapes. You can even use the room to control a giant spirograph!

Falling Sand...a virtual exhibit companion to Soundspace...

Explore what happens when you use your body to cast shadows on the wall. How does it work? A camera detects where shadows fall in this space. Then, a computer creates real-time images of sand which react to the shadows. The sand piles up in the curved areas of the shadows.

Soundspace was developed in partnership with Duke Arts and the University's Department of Music,the Visual Studies Initiative and Visualization Technology Group.

Shadow Garden: Sand is an interactive artwork created by Mine Control and Zack Booth Simpson.