Beep

Beep
Feb. 2021 - 2 weeks project
Teamwork* (Jovan Vulic, Ruoyun Wang, Yilin Lyu)
Sound design course -
Umeå Institute of Design

*The research and concept developing was worked on equally by each individual. For the end presentation, I worked on the app interface, video and helped with the mock up.

What does painting sound like?

Sound and the stroke of the brush can influence our emotions and feelings. Additionally, those elements lay guidance for each movement and the general flow of the artwork. Russian painter and art theorist Wassily Kandinsky was so fascinated by the link between visual art and music that he used musical terms to name many of his paintings.
We saw an opportunity in this area to explore the medium of painting and sound. The main question that laid the foundation for the concept was “What does painting sound like?” By combining the visual and auditory senses into a single creative work, we aim to expand the perception of the experience.

Introducing

Concept

In the first instance, “Beep” needs to be calibrated in order to adjust to the angle at which the brush is held. While in the process of painting, utilizing different types of sensors, the movements of the brush and the color of choice are detected and translated into tangible sounds. These can be saved, looped and edited to create a tune that corresponds to the painting, thus enabling the user to experience the sound of the painting.

The sounds themselves have been designed to give the user a logical yet open sensation to this new media. Carefully picking each note for its corresponding color using frequency diagrams was the first step, furthermore translating these notes to a conventional musical scale to provide the user with a sense of familiarity giving them space to alter this sound with movement and line weight.
The finished painting can additionally be photographed and analyzed by the app and each stroke replayed. 

We heavily experimented with different types of elements used in painting, such as different types of strokes and their potential equivalent sounds. Furthermore, we built various prototypes with Arduino, which helped us to clarify open questions and our project direction.

Future

“Beep” gives its users enough freedom to explore the relation between painting and music but has purposely made limitations in notes to give the user a framework to work within and be creative. The device is small, can be adjusted and put on any painting tool. The device only requires the app to run, eliminating special boards, screens, etc.

As of now, our project is in its conceptual phase, showing various possibilities of what can be feasible. Apart from being suitable for anyone interested in painting and music, we see great potential in “Beep” being used as a therapy tool. We see this as the next step of development for our concept.

Key takeaways

This project was created in the course “Sound Design”. Here we were divided into groups consisting of industrial- and interaction designers. Communication and hands-on examples built an important ground to find a common goal.
Finding the right sounds was a challenge, but combining that with a physical object and acting it out with a mock-up, helped the design process significantly.
In a 2-week project, time is a big factor. Respecting time and understanding the limits is crucial. Acknowledging this meant reducing the spectrum of the possibilities that lie in this topic, in order to create a strong framework and basics for the users to work with or even develop further.