Oscillators - Lights
Pendulum-driven music and light
Impact Snapshot
Cross-disciplinary creative technologist
Project-specific audience and collaborators
Pendulum Mechanics, Motion-responsive Audio, LED Control
Outcomes
- Pendulum-driven music and light
Measured Signals
- Timeline: 2015
- Team members credited: 3
Interactive Demo
Description
Five glass pendulums hung above low tables, each with a candle and a speaker underneath. When stationary, sine waves from perimeter wall speakers filled the gallery with a continuous, slowly shifting drone. Gallery participants were invited to pull a pendulum back and release it — as the glass swung over the candle, a photocell inside detected the candlelight and triggered a bell tone from the speaker beneath that table. Each oscillator had its own pitch, so the five pendulums in motion created a kaleidoscopic melodic effect over the drone. The natural decay of each swing produced hypnotic phasing bell melodies — accelerating, slowing, falling silent — triggered entirely by audience interaction. The pendulums used repurposed scientific glass with LEDs inside, swinging over open candle flame: mechanical and electrical, natural and artificial, occupying the same instrument.
Concept
The first Oscillators iteration by Intermedio, presented at Harvest Gallery, an artist-run space in Cincinnati. The piece was designed so that the musical form was never performed — it was grown by the audience. Every sound in the room beyond the background drone required a human decision to set a pendulum in motion, and the resulting composition was shaped by the physics of decay. A refined second version was presented at the 2022 Gilmore Piano Festival in Kalamazoo, Michigan. In that generation, the sensor moved from the pendulum to the table, and candlelight was replaced by an LED strip that reacted to the glass swinging overhead. Each table was surrounded by a fabric curtain onto which the interior light was cast. The glass pieces were custom-blown for this version, sized to be more inviting to grasp, with custom wooden caps fabricated to conceal the microelectronics inside each bulb.
Team
- Eric Blyth Designer
- Sam Ferris-Morris Composer
- Justin West Composer/Designer
Capabilities
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