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The Prix Ars Electronica Archive is a collection enabling search and viewing of all the submissions since 1987. The award-winning projects are documented with catalogue texts and audio-visual media. All other submissions can be searched by title/artist and displayed with year, category in list form. Please cite the credits (artwork name, artist and photographer) and only use the materials if your article is related to Ars Electronica.
Material Music
Mo Zareei
Original: Material Music (landscape) (Material_Music_landscape.jpg) | 3602 * 3602px | 696.8 KB
Original: Material Music (portrait) (Material_Music_portrait.jpg) | 2401 * 2401px | 1.1 MB
Original: Material Music (detail) (Material_Music_detail.jpg) | 3602 * 3602px | 1.1 MB
Original: Material Music (detail: aluminium) (Material_Music_detail_aluminium.jpg) | 3602 * 3602px | 981.8 KB
Original: Material Music (detail: brass) (Material_Music_detail_brass.jpg) | 3602 * 3602px | 1.0 MB
Original: Material Music (detail: copper) (Material_Music_detail_copper.jpg) | 3602 * 3602px | 1.0 MB
Original: Material Music (detail: glass) (Material_Music_detail_glass.jpg) | 3602 * 3602px | 1.0 MB
Original: Material Music (detail: hardwood) (Material_Music_detail_hardwood.jpg) | 3602 * 3602px | 1021.1 KB
Original: Material Music (detail: marble) (Material_Music_detail_marble.jpg) | 3602 * 3602px | 1016.1 KB
Original: Material Music (detail: softwood) (Material_Music_detail_softwood.jpg) | 3602 * 3602px | 1.0 MB
Original: Material Music (detail: steel) (Material_Music_detail_steel.jpg) | 3602 * 3602px | 983.1 KB
Original: Material Music (detail: electronics) (Material_Music_electronics.jpg) | 3602 * 3602px | 900.7 KB
“Material Music” is an audiovisual installation developed to underscore the significance of physical materiality within multimedia arts. The work consists of a linear array of eight kinetic sculptures, each of which is comprised of an electromechanically-excited block of solid matter. While all eight units are identical in terms of design, function, and aesthetics, they each utilize a different type of physical matter: brass, copper, aluminium, steel, hardwood, softwood, glass, and marble. The temporal development of the work is based on a pre-defined criterion that is determined by a key physical property unique to each matter: the speed of sound travelling through the material.
In each unit, the material block is affixed on top of a box that encloses the electronics, and has identical electromechanical actuators mounted at both ends. A custom-designed programmable driver board is used to operate the actuators. Once an actuator receives a signal, its plunger shoots out and makes audible contact with the material block. As such, the only sonic material used in the work is derived from the mechanical actuation of the materials.
While the actuation begins synchronously among all units, the signals received by the right-hand side actuators of each unit are subtly delayed with every pulse. The delay times are derived from the speed of sound travelling through the specific material type, and are programmed into the driver board. With the passing of time, the delay offsets become more and more audible and visible. As the left-hand side actuators lock the downbeat to the initial rate throughout, the right-hand side actuators are increasingly delayed, producing rhythmic patterns that morph in and out of phase across all eight sound sculptures. In this way, “Material Music” is a process-based multimedia work that interlocks a steady pulse with ever-changing phasing audiovisual patterns that themselves derive from the very essence of the constituent physical materials.
In each unit, the material block is affixed on top of a box that encloses the electronics, and has identical electromechanical actuators mounted at both ends. A custom-designed programmable driver board is used to operate the actuators. Once an actuator receives a signal, its plunger shoots out and makes audible contact with the material block. As such, the only sonic material used in the work is derived from the mechanical actuation of the materials.
While the actuation begins synchronously among all units, the signals received by the right-hand side actuators of each unit are subtly delayed with every pulse. The delay times are derived from the speed of sound travelling through the specific material type, and are programmed into the driver board. With the passing of time, the delay offsets become more and more audible and visible. As the left-hand side actuators lock the downbeat to the initial rate throughout, the right-hand side actuators are increasingly delayed, producing rhythmic patterns that morph in and out of phase across all eight sound sculptures. In this way, “Material Music” is a process-based multimedia work that interlocks a steady pulse with ever-changing phasing audiovisual patterns that themselves derive from the very essence of the constituent physical materials.