The document proposes modifications to the "Filmachine" art installation to enhance the visitor experience. It suggests replacing the white LED lights with colored lights and assigning an audible tone to each color's frequency, so that colors are accompanied by unique sounds. A composition would trigger colors and intensities based on the music. The goal is to further manipulate perceptions of sound and light and how they interact.

1. HC 177: Biotech & Art Physics + Sound = the Filmachine Name: Roda Nur Major: Physical Chemistry

2. Abstract Light is known to travel faster than the speed of sound. What if we were able to combine these two elements to create a space that alters our perception? Takashi and Shibuya have created an art installation titled “Filmachine” where visitors are immersed into a world of visual and audio stimuli. From learning about their project, I feel that there are some modifications that could be added to their current project that could enhance the visitor's 3-dimensional experience.

3. Concept/Topic I am planning to explore the field of physics, more specifically the fields of light and sound, and how these elements could be further enhanced to the “filmachine”. Instead of the white LED lights that are used, what if we replaced them with colored lights. The different colors we see corresponds to a specific frequency. What if we were able to take a color's frequency and translate it into an audible sound tone. By playing with the visible spectrum of color and attaching an audio tone to their frequency of existence we could alter an individual's experience and mood.

5. Project Proposal: Project Proposal: We know from psychology that a human's mood can be altered by the use of color. A dark color palette (blue/violet) is associated with the feeling of sadness, depression or abandonment. A warm color palette (red/orange/yellow) is associated with the feelings of safety, warmth, and happiness. These are examples of visual stimuli that triggers an emotional response in our brains. The question now is how would these human emotions associated with particular colors change if we accompanied a sound? Would this effect change a person's perception? Would the color blue with a unique sound effect make a person feel sad or happy? The goal of this addition to the “filmachine” would continue to play on the idea of changing the way we perceive sound and light. My plan is to analyze the color spectrum and their frequency, and translate their frequency into an a sound tone. Once the colors are assigned a particular audio tone, one can then compose a song/musical score of the sound files. These sound files would then trigger the colors to appear at a certain intensity and a moment of time based on the musical composition. The result of these effects will create a unique visual and audio experience for the spectator.

6. Project Proposal: Visible Region of Light Electromagnetic Radiation refers to a spectrum of waves that are grouped by their wavelengths. The only region we are able to see is the visible region which corresponds to colors ranging 400-700nm in wavelength. The color red corresponds to a longer wavelength which is lower in energy and frequency. Violet corresponds to a shorter wavelength, higher energy and frequency. What we can do is to manufacture LED tubed lights that have the ability to change color via the use of color filters. In order to alter the variations in tints of the color, the controls for the lights will be activated by a switchboard dial system that can boost or lower the intensity of the color. These lights would be set up around the viewer along the space of the room. The closer the sound appears to come to us, the greater the intensity of the light will be.

7. Project Proposal: Sound Waves Just like visible light, sound is also divided up into frequency ranges. For a human, the audible hearing range is 20-20,000 Hertz. Obviously the sound range is numerical different from the light wave range, so we cannot take red which is 400nm and convert it into hertz. However, to bypass this dilemma, we can take the idea that red is lower in frequency and attach that color with a low frequency sound. We can then take violet which has the highest frequency in the visible region and attach to it a high frequency sound. Starting from a dark red color we can start to assign the various sound tones to the different shades of colors and tints. Once all of the colors and shades have been assigned a sound file, one can then began to manipulate/play with the sounds in order to compose a musical piece. The speakers would be placed at strategic locations within the room in order to ensure that sound can be able to come to a person's ear as if it is close to them or a from afar. The room for this installation would be modified a bit to ensure complete noise cancellation where external noises are canceled out in order to preserve the integrity of this experience.

8. Conclusion: Once again, the goal of this project is to improve the unique audio/visual experience that the “Filmachine” creates. This plan's objective is to enhance the audio and visual experience of the spectator in this art installation. What makes this project unique in comparison to other works of art is that it is more interactive and stimulates both our visual and audio senses. It would be great to see in the future the creations of new “modern” art museums that employ the uses of science with visual media in order to change the way we enjoy and experience art.

9. References 1 “Filmachine”. Yamaguchi Center for Arts and Media . SHIBUYA, KEIICHIRO and TAKASHI IKEGAMI, n.d. Web. 11 Feb. 2010. <http://msi.ycam.jp/en/work_f_en.html>.

10. Bibliography Serway, Raymond. Physics for scientists & engineers . Philadelphia : Saunders College Pub., c1996. Berg, Richard. Physics of sound . Englewood Cliffs, N.J. : Prentice-Hall, 1982. Bartlett, Bruce. Practical recording techniques . Amsterdam, Hal Leonard Corp., 2005. Birren, Faber. Color psychology and color therapy; a factual study of the influence of color on human life . New York : McGraw-Hill, 1950. “ Light-emitting diode”. Wikipedia . n.d. Web. 11 Feb. 2010. Hansen, Colin. Understanding active noise cancellation . New York : Spon Press, 2001. Bruccoleri, Federico. Wideband low noise amplifiers exploiting thermal noise cancellation. Dordrecht: Springer, 2005. “ Filmachine”. Takashi Ikegami's Web Page. n.d. Web. 11 Feb. 2010. <http://sacral.c.u-tokyo.ac.jp/~ikeg/ikegikeg/publications.html>. “ Filmachine”. Yamaguchi Center for Arts and Media . SHIBUYA, KEIICHIRO and TAKASHI IKEGAMI, n.d. Web. 11 Feb. 2010. < http://msi.ycam.jp/en/work_f_en.html >. Acoustical physics . Woodbury, NY : American Institute of Physics, 1993.