Harmonic Content

Harmonic Content - A design report for a polyphonic synthesizer art installation

Purpose Statement

This document serves as documentation for the design process for building an electronic sound-based art installation. It is written for the express purpose of sharing my personal design choices and pitfalls with the larger technical art community. Those interested in modular synthesizers, art installations, lighting installations, and electronic systems will be interested. Georgia Tech students and staff passing by the installation will find this of interest if they are intrigued by the installation and want to know how it was designed. This document has been put together in the format of a documentation website, with links on the left panel to specific parts of the project that may be of interest.

Overview

A new art installation entitled 'Harmonic Content' has been proposed for the Van Leer building. It is a wall mounted musical instrument built to be played by paserbys. It is a novel way of incorporating electrical engineering disciplines with artistic practices and human-centered artistic practices. It invites people to play with it with a sense of whimsy and outlandishness. A central tenet of its inception is the concept of harmonic relationships and color relationships and how they can be related. This document will explore some of the technical and design challenges faced in the initial stages of construction of this installation.

Fall 2021 Harmonic Content ECE4723A Steve Kenny

Our team has completed the full scale prototype and working model of Harmonic Content and displayed it for the Senior Design Capston Expo on December 7th, 2021.

Fall 2021 Members

Andrew Kim
Savannah Hearn
William Kennedy
Owen Rohm

Reports

Report 1 .docx .pdf
Report 2 .docx .pdf
Final Report .docx .pdf

Files and Software

The repo for the project can be found at this github. This repo contains all the design files, website files, and software that runs on the device. All software will be in harmonic_content_code/main. Also inside of this directory, there are examples, tests, and documents for different libraries and programs used inside of the project.

There is wiring and hardware desciptions added to the software. Additionally, the files for the PCB and hardware design are also included in the CentralPCB and jack_pcb directories. The current main is the software currently in the instrument.

Figure 1. Early concept render of Harmonic Content

Figure 2. Harmonic Content at Expo

Figure 2. Harmonic Content being played

Figure 3. Harmonic Content presenation