Amit Zoran

Different “handles” enable different and extreme ways to hold a pen.
For what? I am not sure…
This have being done by me as an art project, last year, at Bezalel.

The acoustic guitar sound box gives the guitar it’s unique sound and behavior, by amplifying the string vibrations.
The structure and materials of the sound box rarely changed after hundreds of years of evolution.

Is their a place for structure innovations?
Acoustic Instruments
In Electric guitar the signal is capture using a piezo or magnetic sensor. Then this signal is amplified using electric amplifier.
The electric guitar create expressive electric based sound. The vibrations created by the strings - not using electric/digital oscillators.
At the last few years a new trend started to appear - the digital guitar. Sensors detect the string vibration and using DSP techniques reModel the signal in order to create sound innovations. The digital guitar is a combination between electric guitar and a synthesizer.

So, no more acoustic experience?
The idea behind this project is to enable player to customize their own sound by assembling different sound cells instead of one big sound box. Each string will have it’s own bridge, each bridge will be connected to different cells. Changing the cells size, material or structure can create different sound.

3D printer :
Lets assume 3D printers can print cells to the size of 30cm radius & have a variety of materials strong enough to carry the pressure of the strings and handle resonance.
Open Source :
Imagine people downloading recommended sound cells from the internet in order to change or manipulate their guitar sound.
3D design :
Blackbird Guitar
Players will be able to 3D design their own cells in order to get their unique sound patch.

Project’s Goals :
Examining the design options that being created in the reAcoustic Guitar, alongside the technological questions.
Making 3D illustration of full guitar.
Making a working demo of 2-3 cells and one string.
Open issues :
There are infinity options to build guitar from sound cells, but just few of them may work.
It is beyond the scope of this project to test the physical behavior of different combination, resonance and to find the optimal structure.

2 projects I have done in the past with Yana Voldman, a friend of main.

5 1/4 case

CD case made from the old 5 1/4 inch disks. It was made for Designboom “RE-think + RE-cycle” competition.
Work page at Designboom webSite

Coffee Baklava

Turkish coffee cups made of Baklava (kadaeef dough covered with melted sugar). “Medesign” seminar, Carlo Vannicola, Bezalel.
Read more about it at my webSite

In the past, people used to get feedback from the environment for using materials or losing energy. The bull can’t work in the field forever; the horse doesn’t behave the some when he is tired. If you finish your firewood too fast you will need to cut new ones.

Today – we just don’t care (if we have the money). There is no direct feedback between, for example, the amounts of electricity that we used to the behavior of the computer. The light doesn’t change after loosing “X” watts or “10X” watts. You don’t fill the different when driving a car full of fuel or almost empty – it drives the some. I don’t see the living animal before you eats it.

I believe that feedback is very important in order to be responsible to the environment. Knowing how we changing the world, in eny small thing we are doing, may help to save it.

Vision:

The soundbox of acoustic & classic guitar, like other acoustic wood instrument, didn’t change a lot since the Middle Ages. Today DSP technology is being used in order to remodel electric guitar sounds and to create innovation in guitar sound design (line 6 guitar), but nothing is being done to improve or change traditional soundbox.

New and sophisticated fabrication methods (including 3D printers), 3D design SW and acoustic/materials simulations are available. In the “open source” environment and “personal 3D printers” vision it make sense that guitarist will be able to design/download/fetch is own acoustic sound.

Technology:

Shape – Dividing the body to different part that will behave like a physical “filter bank” by using different “soundcells” (instead of one soundbox). Each of those cells will have it’s own resonance. Then it will be easy to adapt each of the cells separately in order to change its band’s amplification. Hybrid soundbox can be made by downloading some “soundcells” files from the internet.

Materials – examination of 3D printers materials and their resonance, etc.

Sketches:

I combined PVC - vacuum forming on a mold - with thermochronic ink, to creat bowls that change its color according to water temperature

Theo Jansen (Wikipedia) is an artist and kinetic sculptor living and working in the Netherlands. He builds large works which resemble skeletons of animals which are able to walk using the wind on the beaches of the Netherlands. His animated works are a fusion of art and engineering.

I learn (and still learning) how the mechanism of Theo Jansen creature’s legs are working, and I try to build a working, small, 4 legs models.Here(1) & Here(2) are movies about Theo Jansen work + technical explanations

Here is Flash simulation of the legs mechanism

Here are images of my simulation: