Synesthectacles
May 26th, 2011 | Published in Conceptual Art
Synesthectacles are eyewear where fluctuations in light are transmitted through speakers into the eyes. Changes in surrounding light are sensed through sound rather than sight: the brighter the light, the louder the sound. They’re to be worn like glasses, though in the place of corrective lenses, speakers obstruct the wearer’s vision. When worn, the eyes hear: light is translated into non-visible sound, which in turn creates the sensation of sound waves hitting the eyes.
Process
The build process began with a trio of heavy-duty plastic glasses frames purchased from a vintage second hand shop. The lenses were removed from the frames to make room for small speakers, which were mounted in place of the lenses so as to block the wearer’s line of sight. Next, analog circuitry was designed and built to translate variations in light levels into a range of electronic frequencies to produce sound through the speakers. The basic hardware recipe consists of a photo diode (sometimes called a light dependent resistor) paired with a timer circuit of some kind. This is an extremely basic approach, basically providing one camera “pixel” for each eye, which is sensitive only to brightness (not color).
