Faculty Members Thün, Velikov, and McGee publish ‘Resonant Chamber’ in Leonardo, and present at SIGGRAPH 2012 in Los Angeles

Associate Professor Geoffrey Thün, Assistant Professor Kathy Velikov and FabLab Director and Lecturer Wes McGee will present their Resonant Chamber project at SIGGRAPH 2012: the 39th International Conference and Exhibition on Computer Graphics and Interactive Techniques at the Los Angeles Convention Center, August 5-9.

Resonant Chamber is an interior envelope system that deploys the physical principles of rigid origami to transform the acoustic environment through dynamic spatial, material and electro-acoustic technologies. The project aims to develop a ‘soundsphere’ able to adjust its physical properties and spatial configuration in response to changing sonic conditions, altering the sound of a space during performance and creating an instrument at the scale of architecture, flexible enough that it might be capable of being played. The project is developed through three streams of iterative research and development in both computational testing and full-scale prototype installation: Dynamic Surface Geometries; Performative Material Systems; and Variable Actuation and Response.

While SIGGRAPH attracts between 15-20K attendees, the Art Paper sessions constitute a very intimate and competitive venue nested within the conference. The team will present their work on August 7 as one of five juried presentations, followed by a reception in the Art Gallery featuring installations of twelve selected international projects. SIGGRAPH 2012, in collaboration with Leonardo/ISAST, honors not only artists and artwork, but also the process of making art and its place in society. The Art Papers sessions are intended to illuminate and explore the changing roles of creative practitioners and their methods of making in our increasingly networked and computationally mediated world. They inform artistic disciplines, set standards, and stimulate future trends. “Soundspheres: Resonant Chamber” co-authored with Colin Ripley and Lisa Sauvé (M.Arch 2011) will be published concurrent with the conference in a special issue of Leonardo, The Journal of the International Society of the Arts, Sciences and Technology.

The Resonant Chamber project was developed with seed funding support through a 2011 Taubman College Research Through Making Grant and a 2012 Small Projects Grant from the U-M Office of the Vice President for Research (OVPR)

For more information SIGGRAPH 2012 click here.

For more information on the Resonant Chamber Project click here.