Iron Digital Art · 2025
Sound Sculpt Interactive Music Synthesizer
by Yiqi Zhao
- A' Design Award 2025 Iron Winner in Digital Art
- Awarded April 15, 2025
- CLIENT: MIT Media Lab
- Estimated Number of Design Views: 34,833
- Verification code F626C7D51F · Verify this award
About Sound Sculpt Interactive Music Synthesizer
Imagine a world where sound is sculpted by movement, creating a mesmerizing audio-visual landscape. SoundSculpt is an generative music tool that fuses spatial sound, motion, and visual art. Drawing inspiration from traditional sculpting, it empowers users to become central to their creative process. With AR Frames, head movements are captured and transformed into real-time audio modulation via a MIDI framework. Developed on runtime engine, SoundSculpt offers an immersive experience that blurs the lines between creator and creation, redefining artistic exploration.
Yiqi Zhao's Sound Sculpt Interactive Music Synthesizer occupies a distinctive position within contemporary digital art practice, where generative design methodologies and musical interface conceptualization converge to produce visual experiences that transcend conventional screen-based interaction paradigms. The work emerges from traditions of algorithmic art and computational aesthetics while simultaneously engaging with biomorphic design languages that recall both microscopic natural phenomena and speculative synthetic biology. The compositional sophistication demonstrates mastery of parametric modeling techniques, evident in the seamless integration of radially organized membrane structures with densely patterned perforation fields that create complex optical effects through scale variation and graduated density. The chromatic achievement balances warm coral and pink tonalities against cool gray-violet passages, establishing temperature contrast that enhances spatial reading while maintaining overall harmonic unity, with selective placement of ice-blue highlights activating the glossy protrusions and suggesting translucent depth within the forms. Technical facility manifests in the convincing rendering of multiple surface qualities from reflective smoothness to matte particulation, the sophisticated lighting model that creates volume through subtle gradation without resorting to dramatic chiaroscuro, and the atmospheric depth achieved through focus gradients and boundary dissolution. The work appears to explore fundamental questions about the visualization of sound, the materialization of musical data structures, and the creation of tangible metaphors for abstract sonic relationships, inviting consideration of how digital interfaces might move beyond flat graphical conventions toward dimensionalized spatial environments that engage multiple sensory modalities simultaneously. The biomorphic vocabulary suggests organic growth patterns and cellular architectures, potentially referencing biological form-finding principles as models for algorithmic design generation, while the precision and artificial perfection of execution maintains awareness of the work's computational origins. The title's reference to sculpture emphasizes the three-dimensional quality and suggests tactile interaction possibilities, positioning the work within discourse around embodied digital experience and haptic interfaces. The piece may reference traditions of synesthetic art making where visual form attempts to analogize musical structure, recalling historical experiments from Kandinsky's chromatic compositions to contemporary audiovisual performance practices, yet distinguishes itself through its commitment to dimensionalized organic morphology rather than geometric abstraction. One might observe how the radial organization around a central void creates compositional tension between centrifugal expansion and centripetal collapse, potentially mirroring the push-pull dynamics of musical tension and resolution, while the graduated perforation patterns might encode frequency spectrums, amplitude variations, or temporal rhythms translated into spatial density modulations. How might this visualization of musical relationships invite new modes of compositional thinking or performance interaction, and what possibilities emerge when sound becomes not merely heard but spatially navigated and visually inhabited?
Press Kit
- Unique Properties
- Revolutionizing Perception through Immersive Music Making
Imagine sculpting with sound, where body movement generates a mesmerizing audio visual landscape. SoundSculpt is an innovative, generative music tool that fuses spatial sound, motion, and visual art, redefining the boundaries of creative expression. By harnessing the power of Bose AR Frame, this interface enhances perception performance, providing a novel medium for artistic exploration, emotional regulation, and mental well being. - Dimensions & Packaging
- The system uses a MIDI framework to map Bose Frames' head orientation data to sound pitch and volume, then transferred to virtual bubble manipulation is achieved through touch inputs with C# scripts. The integration of synesthesia principles enhances sensory perception, creating a holistic flow that bridges the gap between physical and digital art forms.
Size: 7.2 x 3.1 x 2.9 inches
Weight: 12.31 ounces
Lenses: Polarized
Water Resistance: IPX2 rating
Battery Life: Up to 5.5 hours
Bluetooth Range: 30ft - Tags
- AI, generative AI, spatial audio, digital media, unity, music, wearable tech, Bose, XR, AR
- Production Technology
- SoundSculpt employs XR tech, integrating spatial audio and visual processing for immersive experiences. Bose Frames, with gyro sensors, capture 6 dof head movements, translating them into real-time audio modulation via a MIDI framework. Developed on Unity with C# scripts, it enables real-time user interaction. Mesh deformation and vertex manipulation allow dynamic bubble surface control, creating a responsive interface that enhances engagement and emotional connection.
- Design Challenge
- The hardest part was integrating multi sensory feedback into a seamless flow. Creatively, it was challenging to synchronize audio-visual elements with inputs in real-time. Internally, balancing human vulnerabilities, historical concepts with modern tech required innovative thinking. Externally, limitations in sensor accuracy and data processing posed obstacles. Overcoming these required iterative testing and leveraging cutting-edge XR technology to ensure fluid interaction and emotional impact.
- Project Duration
- The project began in fall 2019 at the MIT Media Lab in Cambridge, MA, and concluded in summer 2020. It was subsequently exhibited to the Bose Frame AR team at Bose Corporation in Framingham, MA.
- Operation Flow
- SoundSculpt immerses users within a virtual bubble, enabling them to shape its surface through intuitive gestures. As they tilt their heads or press buttons, Bose Frames capture these actions, converting them into dynamic audio-visual feedback. This interaction fosters a seamless cycle of "listen," "sculpt," and "art generation," empowering users to transform their environment. The system's innovative design ensures a fluid, captivating experience that boosts creativity and emotional well-being.
- Research
- This HCI research aims to develop an immersive tool for emotion regulation. Using a mixed reality approach, data was collected via user testing and biometric feedback with Bose Glasses and Real-time 3D engine. Participants included designers and non-designers. Results showed enhanced perception of spatial volume, sound, and motion, with a more stable emotion stage. Insights suggest adoption in psychiatry with art therapy, impacting society by improving emotional well-being with playful creation.
- Inspiration
- SoundSculpt is inspired by the tactile art of sculpting, where shaping materials evokes profound emotional expression. Echoing ancient pottery, where your hands transform raw material into art, SoundSculpt revolutionizes this dynamic by turning it inside out, empowering users to become integral to the creative process. By integrating spatial audio and visual art, I offer you an immersive experience that blurs the boundaries between creator and creation, redefining interaction for a new era.
- Image Credits
- Image 1: Yiqi Zhao, 2024.
Image 2: Yiqi Zhao, 2024.
Image 3: Yiqi Zhao, 2024.
Image 4: Yiqi Zhao, 2024.
Image 5: Yiqi Zhao, 2024.
Video Credits: Yiqi Zhao, 2024. - Patents
- Copyrights belong to Yiqi Zhao, 2025.