Aaron Sherwood, whose previous achievements have included merging a glockenspiel, a guitar, and projection mapping, has recently created another experimental audiovisual instrument Firewall, this time in collaboration with Mike Allison.
Using the stadium rockers favored trouser material, spandex, it allows people to create visuals and music by pushing on the stretched elastane, which Sherwood says acts like a membrane interface.
Made using Processing, Max/MSP, Arduino, and a Kinect which “measures the average depth of the spandex from the frame it is mounted on”, people push on the spandex to bring fiery patterns to life which also triggers the music to play, becoming louder depending how hard the spandex is pressed. The result is a stunning visual display that’s, at times, reminiscent of the Unknown Pleasures data viz album cover.
You can see a test video of the project below:
