Cosmusica

Project Members

Yiyun Qiu

Mingyue Gao

Zhaorui Liu

Dawei Yang

Danqing Shi

MY ROLE

Sound Interactive Designer

TOOLS

Satellite

Raspberry Pi

servomotors

Unity

Max/MSP

TouchDesigner

SURPPOTED BY

"Cosmusica" is a digital musical instrument that realizes the interaction between human and the universe. The gesture input and sound output of "Cosmusica" are located in two spaces of low earth orbit satellite and earth respectively. On the one hand, as the gesture input of the musical instrument, the rubber ball installed on the satellite board moves slowly and irregularly under the influence of the space microgravity environment, and its motion trajectory is collected by the vision sensor and sent to the earth and restored as the performance gesture; On the other hand, the electromagnetic wave data received by the satellite from all directions of the universe are audibly converted, and then collaged them into multiple audio materials as the preset sound, and various sound effects are added to the preset sound through real-time sound synthesis software Max/MSP. When the ball moves into the preset trigger area in space, the fusion of earth and space sounds will be realized. Thus, the mapping between the trajectory of the ball under the influence of space microgravity and the audible space sound of human ears is formed.

The sound interaction system of "cosmusica" consists of three parts: input, output and mapping strategy. The input is located on the satellite in space, which is responsible for collecting the trajectory of the ball in space and the longitude and latitude data of the satellite; The output is an installation located on the ground, which respectively outputs the sound of each stars in the solar system and the characteristic sound of the relative region of the earth; The mapping strategy is the intermediary to realize the correlation between input and output. Through the linkage of these three parts, the audience can hear and interact with the sounds from different stars in the solar system on earth.

"Cosmusica" uses visible light wave in the electromagnetic waves as the main part of planet sound conversion. After the image of each star is scanned by radar along the radius direction, a waveform with star characteristics can be obtained, and the longitudinal dimension corresponds to the frequency of the sound, the transverse dimension corresponds to the time, and the brightness information corresponds to the sound loudness. At the same time, the harmonic component coefficient generated by the spectrum is taken as the unique timbre of each star, so as to obtain the unique sound clip belonging to each star. In addition, in terms of the sound design of star, the sound conforming to the geological characteristics of each star is added, so as to generate the final sound of each star in "Cosmusica".

Important Events

科幻世 Sci-Ficene Art and Science Concept Exibition, Beijing, 2021

万籁 · The COSMOS of Soundscape, Nanjing, 2022

济南国际双年展 2022 Jinnan International Biennale -- A World of Coexistence, Jinan, 2023

Cosmusica launch into space, 2023

音乐秘境 Music Mystery - Immersive Music Technology Experience Exhibition, Beijing, 2023

首届中国数字艺术大展 Digital Art China, Hangzhou, 2024

2024厦门国际设计艺术展 Xiamen International Design and Art Exibition, Xiamen, 2024

第十四届全国美术作品展览 The 14th National Exibition of Fine Arts, Shanghai, 2024

中国国家博物馆宇宙考古：时空探索 Cosmos Archaeology: Exploration in Time and Space, Beijing, 2025

Sound Interactive Installation & Space Art

2021.3 -- present