FLAMING LIPS
For most of 2015, I worked on a commissioned collaboration with Wayne Coyne of the Flaming Lips to build a series of sound-reactive lighting sculptures. Wayne had a skull replica he cast in clear resin that refracted the lights in an interesting way. We created a silicon mold of the object so that unique copies could be made using colored resins, and created custom controllers for controlling the RGB lighting. Working with my production studio LadyBrain Studios, we worked with various mediums such as circuit design, custom programmed sound processing, CNC routed circuit housing, molded and cast crystal clear resin designs. Thanks to Haley Moore, the co-founder of LadyBrain Studios and to programmers Oguz Yetkin, Adam Love, and Ed Krohne. http://www.ladybrainstudios.com/works/universal-death-sound-light-cube-no-1-aka-the-waynebrain/
Full Story:
The Universal Death Light and Sound Cube is an ongoing sculpture series of interactive light sculptures, created by Wayne Coyne of the Flaming Lips, his friends at the Womb Gallery in Oklahoma City, and LadyBrain Studios.
Coyne approached Darcy Neal and Haley Moore of LadyBrain Studios originally to add a sound element his brain sculpture and to assemble it as a standalone unit. The LadyBrains team quickly got to work, and installed an analog sound circuit that reacted dynamically to the light levels of the brain, and also wired the lights to a microcontroller so that they were able to trigger sections of the brain as desired. Coyne gave the LadyBrains team the opportunity to create a customized brain based off of ideas that they collaborated on.
The next brain they built was customized to the ideas discussed between Wayne Coyne and LadyBrain Studios. The new v.2 of the Universal Death Sculpture was custom built so that the lighting reacted dynamically to the sounds that were being played through the brain via FFT analysis. The sculpture was built to be a standalone unit with an embedded microcontroller for triggering the audio and lighting. Using FFT analysis, they began to trigger the lights based off of the frequencies heard within the songs, which were stored on a removable SD card.
They also created a Neopixel driver breakout board, that used custom code written to trigger the lights, so that they could use the same FFT code to control much brighter, more powerful LED installations. The enclosures for the brains were created using CNC technology and the silicone mold was created at the Dallas Makerspace, so that we were able to get exact replicas of the brain sculptures for future production. There have been 7 brains produced so far, with new designs in the works utilizing WS2812 RGB LEDs and a Raspberry Pi to do video playback across the surface of the brain.
I was commissioned by Wayne Coyne of the Flaming Lips to build a custom-designed light-reactive sculptural instrument, which was actively used for a solo noise performance during their 2011 tour. It was used on several occasions for the closing act of the song “Sleeping on the Roof”, being used during their live performance for the closing sequence of the last song from the album “The Soft Bulletin” and works as a great stage prop that has a lot of character to it. The tentacles, which were built upon request by Wayne, were built with a tone and volume control. Each tentacle produces its own sound, all of which are initially tuned to the same frequency, so the noise produced helps create the foundation for a ‘wall of sound’ with the 6 notes being played simultaneously.
Here are some examples of the kit version of this instrument being used. I was testing it out with a stationary light source, as well as my programmable light sequencer, which is a work in progress.
01 Light Oscillator w Module 1
02 Light Oscillator w Module 2
03 Light Oscillator w Module 3
I went on to create custom PCBs that I used for teaching workshops where students learned about soldering and assembling their own circuits.
