radial dispersion of coalesced sediments
sound and light sculpture, 2026
+12Vdc 3A, external power supply
180mm x 210mm x 200mm
Based on the Karplus-Strong algorithm – a physical modelling synthesis method developed by Kevin Karplus and Alex Strong in 1983 – radial dispersion of coalesced sediments is a monophonic sound and light sculpture conceived from the idea of a vertical sonic architecture. Monophonic, single channel sound could be (by me, at least) described as inherently vertical; built upright without the counterforts of a ‘3D soundscape’ found in stereo audio, instead focusing on the thinnest structure possible stretching from the lowest to the highest frequencies perceivable by human beings. Karplus–Strong synthesis uses an initial burst of wideband noise (a ‘pluck’) to excite a delay line whose length determines the fundamental frequency. The delayed signal is filtered and fed back into the delay line, with the filtering progressively attenuating higher frequencies and mimicking the energy loss of a plucked string over time. The wideband noise (‘pluck’) is essentially an endlessly tall, vertical structure which is condensed into a horizontal line over time (a ‘pitch’). In this work the resulting sound of this process, the coalesced sediments of a wideband noise, is dispersed radially along a horizontal axis consisting of 10 LED profiles and light pipes, centrifugally removed from the central axis of its vertical origin.
