Current Technology

Sonic Pixels currently features an array of up to 25 speakers – autonomous, wirelessly-controlled audio playback units – and the software control system to drive them.

Mounted into an ~130mm [h] x110mm [od] clear acrylic tube, each unit integrates:

• a full-range 4” speaker;
• a 3W audio amplifier module, DFPlayer MP3 module and a BBC micro::bit mounted on a custom-made PCB;
• a couple of RGB LEDs;
• a 5200 mAH battery pack;

The control system includes:

• a custom-coded iPad interface integrating elements from the NexusUI 2.0 collection of HTML5 interfaces and Javascript helper functions;
• custom-coded ’middleware’ in MaxMSP and Python that receives the iPad inputs and translates them into a series of messages that are then sent via RF from a ‘master’ BBC micro:bit to the ‘slave’ BBC micro:bits in each unit.

Future Development

Sonic Pixels is intended to be an ‘art-technology toolkit’ – an innovative creative technological infrastructure that is adaptable and extendable.

Sonic Pixels doesn’t have to be deployed as a regular 5x5m grid – it could easily be used in alternative configurations, such as:

• a regular grid but over a larger area;
• a single row down a long corridor;
• a guided indoor or outdoor audio walk;
• as ‘sonic lanterns’ for parades and processions;
• a distributed sonic performance integrated into theatrical/choreographic works.

In the future Sonic Pixels could be:

• scaled up – imagine a space filled with hundreds of speakers;
• weather-proofed and solar powered – for large scale sonic works in outdoor, public spaces;
• triggered via MIDI for live spatialised audio performances.

It could also include:

• per unit motion detection sensors to trigger sounds through proximity and movement;
• an awareness of the state of immediate neighbours within each unit – to allow for more complex algorithms and so create sonic cellular automata, flocking and morphing effects;
• wireless audio streaming – from a multi-channel digital audio workstation for live spatialised audio performances or perhaps using real-time audio feeds from remote locations as a form of sonic telematics.

We think Sonic Pixels has great potential for creative application in diverse settings and we welcome opportunities to extend and develop it in collaboration with others.

Exhibiting Sonic Pixels

Currently Sonic Pixels can be installed in a couple of ways – depending on the exhibition space:

1. Via a grid of stainless steel wires at ceiling level. The main supporting, heaviest gauge wires from four fixed points (the corners of a min 5x5m square) with additional cross-wires attached to these. The speakers hang from the intersections of this wire grid with power lines wrapped around and cable-tied to the supporting wires.
2. Floor mounted on small custom stands with power lines taped to the floor.

For ceiling level, Installation takes a day and for floor mounted, ~4 hours. In both cases deinstallation takes 2-4 hours.

Contributors

Sonic Pixels allows sonic artists to create custom sound palettes than can be played back through the system.

Current sonic palettes include:

• Cornbrook Creative – Dawn Chorus
• Cornbrook Creative – Everyday Beeps & Blips
• Cornbrook Creative – Haunted House
• Noise Orchestra – NO Sonic Palette – electromagnetic recordings, bat detectors and noise experiments on an MS-20;
• Gemma Nash, Craig Howlett and Caro Churchill – What is Life Without Water? A sound montage as an aural response to the destructive impact of Latin America’s largest opencast coal mine in La Guajira, Colombia. Part of ‘EXTRACT’ – a collaboration between the Threepenny Festival Association, Virtual Migrants, Rainbow Collective, Voices That Shake!, the London Mining Network and War On Want.

Developers & Supporters

Sonic Pixels is developed by Cornbrook Creative and James Medd – originally as a mini-commission for Manchester Science Festival 2017 with support from Barclays Salford Eagle Labs and Arts Council England.