title: semantron
type: augmented digitally fabricated musical instrument / interactive sound sculpture
year: 2014
author/composer: Alexandros Kontogeorgakopoulos (concept, instrument design, interaction design, programming & electronics, composition), Olivia Kotsifa (instrument design, digital fabrication)
first exhibition - demonstration: final presentation (online) for the Fab Academy training course, June 2014
Semantron is an object used in monasteries to signal sonically events in the monks life. This project transforms this object into an interactive sound sculpture and an augmented interactive musical instrument. The instrument was digitally designed and created using digital fabrication methods. The sound of the wood is convoluted in real time with the sound of simulated physical objects creating a surreal sonic result merging the real and the virtual worlds. It was created during the myFab Academy training in Cardiff and Barcelona.
More information regarding the digital fabrication of the instrument can be found in the fab academy repository here.
Generic info about the research of the work can be found in the paper Tangibility, Presence, Materiality, Reality in Artistic Creation with Digital Technology in the Proceedings of International Computer Music Conference - Sound and Music Computing Conference ICMC-SCM2014