A simple idea, but quite difficult to execute. How do you turn colors into sound? Color is light, and there are so many different colors in the spectrum of light that it’s hard to capture a color, let alone turn it into sound or even music. Starting as project for an interaction design course, Hideaki Matsui and Momo Miyazaki are already thinking on how to develop the idea further. Check out the video below the article to hear the colors for yourself.
The premise is simple: you offer a color to a receiver which recognizes the color and gives the sound that is attributed to the color. Momo and Hideaki started off with the RGB colors for simplicity. But what happens when you mix the colors? New colors are created and new sounds need to be attributed to them. If the color is only a little bit off, the receiver won’t recognize it and it will not react. So you need to be able to create the exact color each time. Easy with only the three RGB colors, difficult as soon as you start mixing the colors. There’s so many colors you can make, the light needs to be perfect, the colors need to be pure. The size of the droplets influence the volume and frequency of the tones. About the materials chosen Hideaki explains: “We wanted to design audio experience from the beginning of project, and explored different kind of medium such as water, smoke, sand and etc… different types of natural materials. We thought using water would be interesting, because it can contain different kinds variables as a sound media. It has size, volume, depth, variable status (ice, fruid, gas), and colors. It’s also easy to mix, fun to blow, and what’s more, it’s familiar enough for people to play with.” As a background white paper work the best.
How to progress with their idea? Anything goes really. From turning paintings into music, to colorfully dressed dancers making the music as they dance. Every idea is work but Hideaki and Momo are on to something. We’ll see and hear more of their colors in the future.
