"Patterns of Harmony" by Gaspar Batth

Patterns of Harmony is a mirrored projection mapping installation inspired by quantum physics and a research to find the origin of geometry. It focuses on all of nature's weird beauty, takes concepts from far beyond the perceptivity of the human mind and attempts to translate them into a unified, spatial form.

The physical object is a fractal of cubes, though it does not contain any physical cubes, only reflections and projections of it. It is built by applying a combination of rear-projection and two-way mirror foils on acrylic glass, and the final effect is achieved by mapping and projecting animated graphics on the back of the installation. Thereby the light gets “trapped inside” the object, breaks on it’s physical structure and create the illusion of other shapes, eventually letting our minds take care of the construction of the visible geometry.

Projection mapping on a sculpture built of acrylic glass, rear-projection foil and semi-transparent mirror foil, 2014.

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"Piano Piece" (1993) by Nam June Paik

Nam June Paik created Piano Piece as a tribute to his close friend and mentor John Cage. Paik altered this piano to play one of Cage's compositions using a computer program designed by Richard Teitelbaum, one of the artist’s numerous collaborators. The television monitors display collaged footage of Cage; shots of Paik’s hands while playing the piano; images of avant-garde choreographer and dancer Merce Cunningham; and a live stream of the piano captured by two cameras trained on the keys.

Mechanical Techno by Graham Dunning

Originally a studio project for making recordings, I now also perform live using the Mechanical Techno method. Several looping records spin on the same axle, ensuring they stay approximately in time with each other. I layer up locked groove records, audio triggers to analogue sytnhs, mechanically played percussion such as a cowbell or a cymbal, and mechanically triggered drum machines. I take all these inputs and perform a live dub, mixing down to two channels live in one take.

Lee Scratch Perry described Dub as "the ghost in me coming out" – Using Mechanical Techno set-ups I aim to release the Ghost in the Machine. Each set-up is unique. The technique is inherently clumsy and delicate, leading to frequent and multiple mistakes and accidents. The chance elements and unpredictable aspects lead to compositions I would never think to deliberately make.

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Ear Accessory workshop by SounDoesnTravel

Ear Accessories, a workshop for HEAD Geneva by Antoine Bertin (sound artist) and Hélène Combal-Weiss (Material and Visual Designer) from SounDoesnTravel (a sound-driven creative studio).

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Sound Architectures by Zimoun

Using simple and functional components, Zimoun builds architecturally-minded platforms of sound. Exploring mechanical rhythm and flow in prepared systems, his installations incorporate commonplace industrial objects. In an obsessive display of simple and functional materials, these works articulate a tension between the orderly patterns of Modernism and the chaotic forces of life. Carrying an emotional depth, the acoustic hum of natural phenomena in Zimoun's minimalist constructions effortlessly reverberates.

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Kinetic Blocks by MIT's Tangible Media Group

Pin-based shape displays not only give physical form to digital information, they have the inherent ability to accurately move and manipulate objects placed on top of them. In this paper we focus on such object manipulation: we present ideas and techniques that use the underlying shape change to give kinetic ability to otherwise inanimate objects. First, we describe the shape display’s ability to assemble, disassemble, and reassemble structures from simple passive building blocks through stacking, scaffolding, and catapulting. A technical evaluation demonstrates the reliability of the presented techniques. Second, we introduce special kinematic blocks that are actuated and sensed through the underlying pins. These blocks translate vertical pin movements into other degrees of freedom like rotation or horizontal movement. This interplay of the shape display with objects on its surface allows us to render otherwise inaccessible forms, like overhangs, and enables richer input and output.

Imagine this with synthesis...

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"Hyperjump" by Tundra collective

"Hyperjump" was created as a site-specific work for one of the halls of the former First Cadets Corps, which is now being reconstructed as a study spaces of Saint-Petersburg State University. The nineteenth-century hall has a sports ground with a basketball court , built here in a soviet time.

"Hyperjump" explores the idea, set by this paradoxical combination: the basketball court, representing the physicality, we have from the nature, together with the architecture of the classicism period, the symbol of the human rationality.
25 moving head light beams on a truss stands and a powerful sound system were installed along the hall. While the light sculpture started to move, the electronic light devices came to life, turning into the actors themselves, bringing the light, shut in the strict geometry back, to its unpredictable nature

"Form Follows Sound" by Roy Yahalomi

"Form Follows Sound" is Roy Yahalomi’s graduation project from the Holon Institute of Technology. The work is based on the research of a new ceramic material that the designer developed together with Or Hetzroni. The element is made out of basalt rocks, which needed to be ground into a powder and transformed to liquid. Afterwards, plaster molds were shaped providing a cavern where the substance was poured.

The natural gravel is made from different types of metal and glass, ingredients that provide its unique acoustic qualities. this fact fascinated Yahalomi, leading him to perform studies in search of answers to multiple questions: "Do different shapes of the material affect the sound? In which ways does sound move inside a shape? What are the conditions required for producing a sound? And if so, is it possible to determine the pitch every shape will produce?" With his insights, a template was formed explaining the needed capacities and thicknesses for a series of 20 bells with harmonic sounds. The device is a contemporary interpretation of the traditional African Guiro.

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"Variation, Piscines" by Céleste Boursier-Mougenot

An installation in Sao Paulo (2009).

"A Confidence of Vertices" by Brandon Morse

The stark videos of Brandon Morse present the viewer with exercises in tension, set tableaux in which structures morph and twist under physical constraints. Stripped-down architectural forms that ought to exhibit the rigidity of highrise buildings instead engage in a tug-of-war, the result of a string simulation distributing kinetic force through a network of nodes.

Morse seems to delight in setting up scenarios where seemingly ordered constructs rapidly degenerate under the influence of virtual force, which can only be observed through the dramatic effects it exerts. The end result is a state of irrecoverable chaos, brought about by causal simulated chain of action and reaction.

More at Generatorx, including the software used.

Generator.x 3.0

Generator.x was a project that extended from 2005 to 2012 and appears defunct. But they have left a phenomenal amount of work behind, including over a thousand images on Flickr from the workshop "From Code to Atoms" (iMAL, Brussels). View that specific tag.

There's data sculptures, 3D scanning, parametric paper folding and more in the Generator.x 3.0 documentation.

"Rechnender Raum" by Ralf Baecker

The inverted machine – Rechnender Raum (Computing Space) is a light-weight sculpture, constructed from sticks, strings and little plumbs. At the same time it is a full functional logic exact neural network. Through its strict geometric and otherwise very filigree construction, the observer is able to track the whole processing logic from every viewpoint around the machine. This disclosure of the machines core is enforced by an uncommon distribution of its constructing elements: a nine angled architectural body forms a torus. In contrast to an ordinary alignment of a hidden logic and an outer user facing display its geometric basis is turned inside-out. The core of the machine, with all its computing elements, is shifted outwards on the surface, while the "display" which indicates the results of the tasks is displaced into the center of the system.

Even though the tasks and their logic runs directly in front of the viewers eyes and even if one is long sinking into the interaction of the elements which is accompanied by a polyphonic but steady and reassuring buzz, it is not possible to follow the succession of the single conditions of the machine. On one hand by turning the machine inside-out its function is completely transparent, on the other hand a strict self-referentiality and ignorance to the viewer is realized. The machine turns away from the visitor and carries out its computations only for itself. Without depending on interaction or requesting it, it goes through its own states endlessly. The results of the computations are sent inwards -into its own center- they are not intended for the viewer. So an interesting paradox appears: while the machine opens up everything it closes it at the same time, as if it has a secret.

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Estonian forest megaphones

Somewhere in Estonia, amid the lush green leaves, encroaching moss and dark bark of the country's forests, is a massive megaphone. Made of beautifully finished wood, the giant horn sits beside two others of its kind, each pointed in a different direction, looking as though they are ready to project, or perhaps capture sounds from different corners of the woods. Large enough for an onlooker to climb inside, the idyllic carvings look like the remnants of a centuries-old fairy tale; the one bits of remaining evidence that something magical happened between the trees.

This one is making the rounds of social media. It's been covered in many places, but this article from The Huffington Post has the most detail.

Bird automaton (1556) by Karl Griesbaum

Bird automaton (1556), made by Karl Griesbaum. Courtesy Douglas-Fisher of London.

Bird automaton (1890) by Blaise Bontems

Bird automaton (1890), made in Paris by Blaise Bontems. Refurbished by Michael Start at The House of Automata.

Konstruct app

Konstruct is an investigation into Generative Art in an Augmented Reality environment. It is a sound reactive AR experience for the iPhone that allows the user to create a virtual sculpture by speaking, whistling or blowing into the device's microphone. A variety of 3D shapes, colour palettes and settings can be combined to build an endless collection of structures.

"Tipping Point" by Kathy Hinde

Tipping Point invites us to consider our relationship with water, and the necessity of balancing how we use the world’s water resources. This audio-visual installation explores the sonic complexities and possibilities of combining glass vessels with shifting water levels. Sound tones are produced live via a microphone that feeds back inside each glass vessel. As the water levels change, the feedback is tuned to different pitches based on the resonant frequency of the remaining space in each glass vessel. The work forms both a sound sculpture and the basis of a live performance.

This project is a collaboration with John Rowden at the Scientific Glass Workshop in the School of Physics at the University of Bristol with software designed by Matthew Olden.

More information on Hinde's website.

"Rawr! A Study in Sonic Skulls" by Courtney Brown and Sharif Razzaque

What did dinosaurs sound like? Maybe we can find out by hollowing out their skull and blowing into it. This project got an Honorary Mention at Ars Electronica 2015 in the category of "Digital Musics & Sound Art"