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Music

3D-Printed Disco Balls Play Every Masterpiece By Mozart At Once

Rafael Lozano-Hemmer's “Sphere Packing" is designed to concentrate the entire musical production of a composer in a multi-channel device.

All images courtesy of Antimodular Research.

Though disco balls may remind you of that permanently-scarring photo you discovered of your parents at a roller disco, not all light-refracting spheres are horrifying. Veteran light artist Rafael Lozano-Hemmer’s recent installation Sphere Packing is a perfect example of how similar concepts can contribute to a room’s total ambience without just erratically reflecting shards of light.

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Sphere Packing is a series of 3D-printed pieces designed to concentrate the entire musical production of a composer in a single dense multi-channel device,” says a project description over at Lozano-Hemmer’s website. “The size of each sphere is directly proportional to how prolific the composer was.”

For example, while one sphere dedicated to Johann Sebastian Bach comprises 1,100 loudspeakers that simultaneously play each of his 1,100 different compositions, another sphere for Hildegaard Von Bingen only has 69 loudspeakers. “As people are a couple metres away from a sphere they hear a quiet murmur of sounds, but as they approach and put their ear up close to individual speakers they can hone in on specific compositions,” continues the description.

Though it seems like it’d be a cacophonous experience, just consider it this way: afterwards you can brag about how you studied entire bodies of work by Mozart and Richard Wagner in one sitting. That’s way sexier than bellbottoms and faux-silk shirts while dancing to ABBA.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart - White polymer 3D print, 565 channels of sound, 35 cm diameter, 5 Kg aproximately.

Henryk Mikołaj Górecki - Dyed transparent polymer 3D print, 105 channels of sound, 13 cm diameter, 3 Kg aproximately.

Richard Wagner - Glazed porcelain 3D print, 110 channels of sound, 13 cm diameter, 3 Kg aproximately.

For more on Rafael Lozano-Hemmer, check out his website

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