[From PSFK]
Sonic Cradle Lets You Mix Soundscapes With Your Breathing
By Stephen Fortune on July 13, 2011
One can rest easy about the fate of the remix, as artists are constantly seeking new ways to push remix culture into new territory. Oftentimes, they do so by reimagining the interface by which one can cut and mash up (like such novel projects as the VJacket and Karina Van Heck’s internal organ mixing desk), and the latest experiment in embodied remix interfaces is even more ambitious than previous forays. Jay Vidyarthi and Darwin Frost have designed the Sonic Cradle that enables users to mix a soundscape using their breath alone.
Participants are suspended in total darkness while their breathing frequency envelops them in their own lung-driven sonic mash-up. While certainly evocative of landmark virtual reality experiments such as Osmose and Ephémére the Sonic Cradle also represents an extension of recent technological efforts which seek to bring meditative and mindful practices into proximity with the latest technology, a sort of tonic to the stress which many people feel the ubiquity of technology induces in society.
Vidyarthi and Frost envision the Sonic Cradle enabling its user to enter a space which is very conducive to meditation. Indeed anything which allows an individual to focus on their own breath can have therapeutic benefits and the response to their first prototype haa been immensely positive in this regard.
To complete the work, Vidyarthi & Frost are looking for relaxing music, found sounds and readings — and they’re collecting submissions. To submit your recordings to this crowdsourced meditative archive visit The Sonic Cradle.
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About the author of this article, Stephen Fortune:
Stephen is a regular contributor to PSFK. He is also an interactive media practitioner engaged in artistic interventions which investigate and illuminate computational culture. His areas of expertise include open data and physical computing.