Wintersemester 2021/2022, BA/MA Textil- und Material-Design eLab , Textil_Startseite

Sculpting Sound

If sounds could be shaped, what would they look like?

“Sculpting Sound” is a textile interface project focused on the interaction between shapes, sounds, and movements. Using fabric as a medium, the project explores the possibilities of sculpting sounds through the creation of a mouldable surface that can be shaped, reshaped, and stay in shape.

Inspired by various experiments with conductive materials and the construction of pressure sensors, the project aims to create a structure that not only generates sounds through the changing of shapes, but also has the ability to retain the sounds shaped by the textile landscape.

The basic structure of the interface is formed by a piece of fabric overlaid with two layers of prints. The bottom layer is a geometrical pattern—made out of small right triangles—that strengthens the fabric and allows it

to form three-dimensional shapes. The top layer is a graphite coating that, through its conductive nature, functions as a pressure sensor. When being crumpled up, the fabric will transform into a myriad of shapes while simultaneously producing a wide range of sounds.

Through the interplay between opposites—rigid and flexible, soft and hard, silent and audible, material and immaterial—the project facilitates an open and exploratory interaction between shapes and sounds using visible and invisible waves.

Project category Project subjects BA/MA Textil- und Material-Design