SyneDrum
A Drum For the Deaf
A drum designed for the deaf using cymatics and synesthetic priciples to bring the creation of music to everyone.
Fall 2021
Semester 2
14 week project
THE EXPERIENECE OF SOUND
Sound is present all around us in every aspect of our lives, at work, school, or strolling down the street.
Sound can help us communicate, learn and be aware of our surrounding.
Sound through music can make us feel.
However… Not everyone can hear sound.
POTENTIAL PROBLEMS
BUT WHY MUSIC?
Music can be a good cure for loneliness
Can increase creativity
Regulates anxiety and increases focus
Produces strong emotional experiences
Social facilitation tool
Regulates stress and emotions
Forms ones personal identity
Works as a universal language
Playing an instruments is a way to express yourself
OBJECTIVE
Create a solution for experiencing and creating sound through touch and visuals by using light and vibration as tools for people living with deafness and hearing loss.
HOW?
SYNESTHESIA
Experiencing one sense through the stimulation of another.
CYMATICS
The patterns created when light and vibrations interact with a liquid.
For the Deaf community music is so much more than a combination of sounds.
It’s a language, a tool full of power.
But not everyone can hear music.
With SyneDrum, you don’t have to.
SyneDrum allows you to experience music in a different way.
SEE the ripples on the surface.
FEEL the vibrations on your legs.
And communicate without words.
Create with Synedrum and explore the potential of MAKING music.
HOW IT WORKS
Playing using different parts and different movements of your hands makes for an easy, dynamic playing style, with high contact, perfect for empasizing touch and rythm without actually having to hear the results.
switching pitch through the surface encourages the player to move around the drum. The change in pitch is not only noticeable in sound but also in how the ripples are seen on the surface.
Played in the same way as any other type of handpan, SyneDrum is played on you lap, this makes the whole surface accessible to play, but more importantly creates a large contact surface with your legs to feel located vibrations as you play.
Music is not an individual activity and neither is SyneDrum, Synedrum encourages community and sharing through recording and looping of the ripples as well as live collaboration with other people, creating not only music together but combined visuals.