Deconstructed Carousel

Inspiration

We were inspired by the kinetic sculptures of the MIT museum and music-controlled LEDs to create this project. Most of all, we wanted to have fun creating a piece of art that looks interesting with fun bits of technology behind it.

What it does

The centerpiece is a folded paper "vinyl" with a carousel on top that rotates with the tempo of music played through Spotify. LED lights are mounted below that change color, brightness, and frequency with the music as well.

How we built it

The paper vinyl pattern was ported from a linear template to a circular one, laser cut in sections, folded, and glued. The main body of the piece is laser cut as well. The carousel is created using laser cut HDF, origami stars, charms, and embroidery thread. MATLAB code was used to parse data from the Spotify API to create the interactive features.

Challenges we ran into

With lack of time and materials, prototyping was limited, which resulted in our final product falling a little short of initial ambitions. Originally, we wanted the vinyl to "flutter" up and down. While we managed to create minimal movement, it was not to the degree we had hoped.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

Creating the circular pattern for the vinyl, with only a simple linear template as inspiration, was both a product of art and engineering. Writing the code to parse the various data sources - timber, volume, tempo, pitch, sections, and key - from Spotify to interface with the mechatronics we had available also is something of which we are proud.

What we learned

Paper can be used in unconventional ways, for both art and engineering, how to work with APIs, different ways to visualize data from songs, and ways to merge arts and crafts with more traditional fabrication methods.

What's next for Deconstructed Carousel

We only had time to create one iteration of the vinyl, but there is room to explore! Data could be parsed to create unique representations in the cuts and folds, different materials or stiffness of paper could create varied movements and interactions, and other actuation methods can be explored.