The relationship between sound and color has been a curiosity throughout history. Our biggest inspiration was from Newton, who created a color wheel with his idea of how musical pitch would relate to it. We hope that the Color Play creates a voluntary feeling of synesthesia by causing the user to hear a pitch by seeing a color.
The Color Play user arranges colorful plastic wedges of varying widths to compose a sound loop. Each color represents a pitch and the width of the wedge determines duration.
The design is based on a record player, and features removable trays, interchangeable color pieces, and a nob to change the speed of the spin. A light up arrow points to the color sensor made from an RGB LED and a photocell. Because each color absorbs and reflects unique colors of light, our color sensor shines Red, Green, and Blue light at the target and records the amount of light that returns. The Arduino sends a midi note to Ableton based on these values.
The Color Play is a result of our interest in exploring the relationship between color and sound.