Echo Chamber

04/2018

About the project

PAT 452 is an interactive media design course offered through the Performing Arts Technology Department at the University of Michigan. As our final project of the semester, we each designed and created an interactive sound installation. “Echo Chamber” is an installation bordering on kinetic sculpture, that uses cassette players and magnetic tape to physically represent sound moving through time and space. A visitor of this installation, upon hearing the looped and distorted sounds of those who were there before, is compelled to speak – leaving their imprint on the piece and hearing their own voice slowly melt into the noise.

I began by brainstorming and sketching out initial ideas, and learning how tape heads worked. I then acquired several tape decks and began hacking them to extract the essential mechanisms (motors, read/write heads, etc.). With a total of four tape decks, spaced out to surround a visitor of the installation, two were connected to microphones which recorded any incoming signal over the continuously moving tape. The signal passed through the appropriate pre-amps, and was played out through the original casette player speakers. I constructed the physical aspects of the installation to maintain the project’s aesthetic and compel interaction.

“Echo Chamber” was showcased during the end-of-semester open house.