Students of the Design Products Department at the RCA and Yamaha Design Studio teamed up last week for London Design Festival to present an exhibition called Resonance. The five projects presented explored the audience’s appreciation of music and how the audience and performer could achieve greater intimacy. The resulting devices are both surprising and entertaining…

The Human Speaker by Nic Wallenberg: The Human Speaker employs technology normally used in speech therapy, fitted around the neck to send vibrations through the throat and create sound from the mouth. Our throats produce sound by the vocal chords reacting to air from the lungs, and the resulting sounds are amplified by the mouth. My device bypasses the vocal chords and transmits vibrations straight into the upper throat. The wearer can play with the sounds that are created. Each neck device produces two musical tones at a time, so the more people using the devices together the more complex the compositions become.

Music Within by Petter Thörne and Youness Benali: The project visually extends the instruments out in the room. It delivers an experience that makes a picture of the world inside the instruments and tells you how the music is formed. By attaching small cameras inside the instruments and projecting the videos live, a more multifaceted musical experience is created. The musician is given a new tool to affect and communicate to the audience.

Public Resonance by Sam Weller: Public Resonance allows a performer to directly connect and literally ‘resonate’ with their audience. By utilising the natural resonance of everyday objects, for example street furniture, existing architecture or even public transport, various vibrations can be created and amplified by this portable percussive resonant tool kit. This explores the hidden realm of natural resonance that surrounds us in the form of the everyday objects we take for granted during our daily life. The design and performance element of the project was inspired by the spontaneity of street performers and the busking community, and the devices visually refer to existing crafted wooden instruments.

Touch the Sound by Lingjing Yin: “What if the human body is capable of storing music like vinyl? What if our bodies became the acoustic container of our memories? If we use our body as an instrument, will different people have different sound qualities? Will larger people sound much nicer than petite people? What would emotion sound like?” These are the questions that led to Touch the Sound, Lingjing’s proposal for Yamaha ‘Resonance’. The project explores how the human body could be used as a mediator between sound, touch and emotion associated by challenging intimate personal space, which has potential to be used as a new relationship between the audience in a performance.

The Cisum Music by Anton Alvarez: In The Cisum Music I have created a new situation where the different components of music are separated. Each musical component is contained within one of five cylindrical shaped speakers. These mobile sound containers will emit their sound when set in motion by the public. The parts of the music will come together bit by bit in the interaction between the objects and the audience, and the sound will travel around the room with help of the public shaping their experience. I have collaborated with Rickard Jäverling in this project. He is a musician making something that could be categorised as campfire electronica. He has specially composed the music for this type of experience in The Cisum Music.

- A.Morris