Geometric Music is a free app (download here, or fiddle online) that takes sounds recorded from your environment and assigns them on-screen geometric shapes. Manipulating the shapes and arranging them relative to one another allows the user to build looping, layered musical pieces.
There's an old adage about humor: Explaining a joke is like dissecting a frog. Nobody's that interested, and the frog dies. It turns out that some people really are that interested. Here's a quick experiment that tries to figure out, scientifically speaking, which sort of slapstick is funnier.
Some people's entire lives are closed captioned. Whenever the people around them speak a word, they can see it spewing on a tape, like ticker tape. Here's what it's like to live in a world where the subtitles are always on.
You can take pictures of what you see, but what about what you hear? It is possible, using a photography trick that can make sound visible.
Did you know that the same kind of punched cards control both the jaunty tunes of old timey organs and the warp and weft of a certain kind of textile loom? Glithero, aka British designer Tim Simpson and Dutch designer Sarah van Gameren, bridged the gap for a cool a medium mash-up—and managed to weave music.
This musical interactive transforms your keyboard into an instrument, complete with accompanying animations.
Okay, here is an addictive Friday afternoon diversion I think you're going to like: Patatap lets you make tunes and pictures with your computer keyboard (instead of boring old words). It's lovely, it's easy, and it's fun—try it below!
Unless you're a synesthete, the five senses are pretty straightforward—but designers keep on coming up with cool ways to mix-up the experience for those of us who don't have the natural ability. Which is what makes the Wassiliscope so neat: This thing transforms color frequencies into corresponding sound frequencies,…
People with a condition known as synesthesia are prone to swapping their senses. They can feel colors, see music, and smell words. This raises an important question for science: What's it like to have sex when you've got synesthesia? Thanks to some inquisitive researchers, we have the answer.
Unless, that is, you're a synesthete. (You're about to experience a number through music!)
Ever wish you could see sounds? Now you can.
In the big wide world of mental disorders, synesthesia is probably one of the most interesting and least harmful. It's like a sensory remix. But what's it really like? Alex from Bite Sci-Zed, who "suffers" from a flavor of the disorder where her numberals have very distinct colors, explains it. By the numbers. […
Do you know anybody who experiences synesthesia? Also known as "synesthetes," they're people whose cognitive pathways have become jumbled, such that they associate seemingly unrelated senses or mental states with other senses or experiences — hearing colors, for example, or tasting sounds.
Unless you're a synesthete, you probably don't get very many opportunities to see music. But this 3D data visualization project, Portrait of the Ghost Drummer, by Polish designer Odaibe allows you to do exactly that.
No ideas? What about a passing train — has listening to one ever evoked a specific color in your mind?
An estimated 4% of the population have synesthesia, a condition where senses become confused. People with synesthesia may perceive that certain sounds have flavors, or that certain words have a specific color. Even though synesthesia is widely recognized, and at least vaguely understood, what we don't know is why it…
Synesthesia is a concept that has always fascinated people. People have long since claimed to process colors as sounds, or to associate colors with music or words.
According to researchers at Frankfurt's Max-Planck Institute for Brain Research, the sight of certain swimming strokes can evoke colors in synesthetic swimmers.
Take a look at the picture and honestly tell me which shape you would match to the word ‘bouba' and which you would match to the word ‘kiki'.
Time Lords walk among us. Two per cent of readers may be surprised to discover that they are members of an elite group with the power to perceive the geography of time.
