Guests at the Sonos Studio residency in NYC made their own loudspeakers using a 3D printer.
New York, NY—Home theater sound system design company Sonos recently held a week-long residency in New York City, bringing in performance spaces and interactive audio installations reflective of those in the company’s permanent set up in LA. Occupying the entire basement space of the NeueHouse and part of the upstairs lounge area, Sonos installed original art pieces that incorporate audio into the design. Pro Sound News stopped by the space to check out each of the installations and see Sonos’ vision of how audio and art integrate together.
The first installation visitors encountered in the studio was ‘Sounds of NYC,’ a wall of more than 300 Sonos Play:1 speakers programmed to respond to music, sounds and movement. As people stood in front of the wall, a map of NYC appeared, and using visitors’ motions, they could choose a borough on the map to listen to music from that neighborhood mixed with sounds of the city.
Behind the ‘Sounds of NYC’ was a separate small theater that housed the ‘Live Hands’ exhibit, sponsored by Great Works and Plan 8, allowing visitors to control the frequencies of each track in a song by picking up the loudspeaker and moving it around. Using a song from the Brooklyn-based band The Skins, four loudspeakers labeled ‘drums,’ ‘keys,’ ‘vocals,’ and ‘guitar’ allowed people to play around with the sound of each track.
Using an Audio-Technica 2020 mic, this ceiling installation called ‘Ancient Chaos’ moved according to the sounds the microphone picked up.
On the main floor of NeueHouse, Sonos installed ‘Ancient Chaos,’ a silver Mylar quilt that moved according to the sounds it picked up on an Audio-Technica AT2020 microphone. Created by The Principals and Devonte Hynes, this installation mimicked the movements of the ocean, using music and sound to navigate the flow.
Numerous events were also held during the week-long residency, including live artist performances, demos and a make-your-own-loudspeaker station where people could design the casing for a loudspeaker with the help of a 3D printer.
Sonos Senior PR Manager Eric Nielson explained the ‘Sounds of NYC’ installation at the Sonos Studio in New York. This wall of light-up speakers responded to visitors’ movements and allowed them to sample the music and sounds of all five NYC boroughs.
