This work is an interactive sound installation and musical instrument based on imagining the sounds of a lambeosaurine hadrosaur, duck-billed dinosaurs known for their large head crests, which researchers hypothesize were resonators for vocal calls. We use scientific research as a starting point to create a means of sound production and a resonator, using a 3D model obtained from computed topology (CT) scans of a corythosaurus skull, and an endocast of its crest and nasal passages. Users give voice to the dinosaur by blowing into a mouthpiece, exciting a larynx mechanism and resonating the sound through the hadrosaur’s full-scale nasal cavities and skull. Through the controlled exhalation of their breath, users get to know the dinosaur and how the compression of the lungs leads to a roar or a whisper.

Our intention is to lift dinosaur sound from disembodied simulation into physical being. Gallery visitors and performers complete this process by blowing into the installation, momentarily becoming the dinosaur. Uniquely, this instrument offers an embodied, experiential window into the distant past. For example, it takes an effort to get the skull to roar. It is not easy. Our lungs are human-sized, a fraction of those of the corythosaurus. Through this effort, we can feel the enormity. We no longer need to see it to understand it. We know it in our gasping for breath. It exists in the relation between our diaphragm, the roar and the sputter.

Accordingly, our design requires users to use their own breath. This action activates the larynx mechanism, resonating through the corythosaurus’s nasal cavities and crest. The roar is not synthesized. It is the consequence of physical processes produced by the breath, mediated by the construction and materials of the skull and larynx. Vibrations flow back into the lungs and become part of the experience. The interaction is rich in complexity because of the physicality of its design.

Links: http://www.courtney-brown.net, https://vimeo.com/78323032

Courtney Brown (US), composer, music researcher, engineer, sculptor
Sharif Razzaque (US), engineer, digital fabrication
Carlo Sammarco (CN), digital fabrication and advice (nasal passages)
Garth Paine (AU/US), advisor
Lawrence Witmer (US), provided the 3D model of a hadrosaur skull
Arizona State University GPSA (US), funding
Brent Brimhall (US), support and assistance
Gordon Bergfors (US), support and assistance
Sallye Coyle (US), support and assistance

Courtney Brown (US) is an interactive sound artist, composer, Argentine tango dancer, and software developer. She is a doctoral candidate in Interdisciplinary Digital Media and Performance at Arizona State University, and a former Fulbright Fellow, composing interactive Argentine tangos in Buenos Aires, Argentina. She is also a graduate of Dartmouth’s Electroacoustic Music Master’s Program.

Sharif Razzaque (US) is an inventor, designer, and computer scientist. He has a PhD from UNC-Chapel Hill, in collaboration with Univ. College London and HIT Lab at Univ. Washington in Seattle. As InnerOptic Inc.’s CTO, he develops surgical devices with 3D virtual -interfaces. Ultimately, his work is about understanding human perception and using this to create compelling and effective experiences and tools.