Speaker Art

“New Media student Jess Rowland” and “Research Director of UC Berkeley’s Center for New Music and Audio Technologies (CNMAT)” Adrian Freed have investigated the “technical, design, and aesthetic possibilities of 2-D, flexible audio speaker technology”. Pieces produced present coils made from “machine-cut copper sheets”, “inkjet printing” and “electroless copper plating on paper” and “thin plastic”.

The image displays a focus on aesthetics, making the speakers pieces of art. This highlights a dual decorative and functional purpose to the product, giving quality to the electronic product. The repeated hexagonal pattern is simple yet links to an echoed sound. The start of the coiled circuit can be followed round as the pattern travels across the material to the end of the circuit. The copper colour stands away from the black surface, reflecting light and therefore introducing new patterns.

  

The paper speaker is an “acoustic drawing”. The piece name “Embryo” has been created from “copper foil” and “paper”. Areas of the work use both “spiral” and “parallel” topology structures, which combined allow for a really figurative image.

This speaker displays the possibility of using more “photographic material” within a circuit design. Here a “magnetic sheet” has been used with the copper foil, allowing the portrait to produce sound.

Rowland, J. (2012). CNMAT. Retrieved from http://cnmat.berkeley.edu/new_music/people/4752.