Overview

AXPendula is an interactive audio visual installation based on the laws of simple harmonic motion. Eight custom designed pendulums are set in motion, each illuminating and triggering a musical note as they pass through the centre.

AXPendula was exhibited twice throughout 2018, firstly at the Dyson School's Audio Experience exhibition and secondly for London Design Festival where the installation was opened to the public.

The installation was built using an Arduino as an input-output controller, Max MSP for processing/sound generation and MIRA to provide a user interface on an iPad wirelessly. The interface allowed viewers to change the harmonic scale that would be played as the pendulums triggered.

The pendulum lengths were calculated so that the phase of each pendulum would align after a set amount of time. This arrangement resulted in a light sequence and melody that transitioned from a unison chord into increasingly chaotic arpeggios before returning to its initial state.

The budget for the project was £100 and construction of the installation took around 1 week. Each pendulum consisted of a 2W white LED cluster, a plastic tree bauble, a 3D printed ceramic part and a small magnet. Each was suspended using polyamide thread. Hall effect sensors were used to sense the pendulums passing through the centre by picking up the magnetic field of the attached magnets.