plis/replis is an 2012 installation by CMU professor Ali Momeni and his collaborator Robin Meier. It consists of a giant (10 x 10 x 12 m) origami inspired and digitally fabricated structure suspended inside an underground cave. The structure serves as a large speaker inside the space. On the focal point of the structure, a glass platform holds a vessel of champagne. Inside this vessel, there is a microphone that captures the effervescent sounds of the champagne. These then are run through software that translates them into a sound environment which continually evolves in response to the effervescent activity. The folds in the structure serve as metaphor for the relationship between mind and matter. The project in part aims to amplify the metaphors and experience of champagne. I like this project in part because of how it transforms the space in which it is at taking advantage of the qualities of the space itself, the size and its relative isolation due to it being an underground cave. I also like Prof. Momeni’s sound projects as they make the small sounds that we don’t pay attention to, hypnotic and grand.

Tap Sense is a technology developed by CMU professor Chris Harrison (paper published UIST 2011). It allows touch screen devices to detect different types of touch through the help of the different sounds made when the finger touches the screen. Our fingers are extremely complex and functional, yet touch screens today interpret touch in a single way. Tap Sense takes the hardware that is in place and uses it to sense in a novel way, in particular, it uses sound to understand touch. The creative way of interpreting information is what is most appealing about this project to me. Taking existing stimuli from the world and interpreting in novel ways is something I want to borrow from this project.

Blinkdrink is a commercial product that uses the microphone in the smartphone to react to sound. It is made by Brad Simpson who is currently at IDEO. The way microphones are used is interesting to me because of the social aspect. If you are by yourself and you activate your Blinkdrink app with a glass on top of it, you will see how it responds to the sound, more interestingly to music. If you are with friends, and each friend has their glass on top of their phone, every phone responds differently (at least based on the project video). Then it becomes more of a game around arranging in different ways the sound.