Lanterns is an installation designed in collaboration by Alice Emily Baird for the 2015 Audiovisual Synthesis Workshop at Dartmouth College.

This work was motivated by our desire to create an outdoor space that draws people in and encourages interaction, especially in the chill of late October. Our inspiration was the campfire, which attracts with its warmth but also creates a familiar environment through its low crackle and flickering light. Lanterns achieves analogous effects through generative audio drones and the reflection of light off the standing waves in water these vibrations produce.

Each suspended lantern is a module of wave phenomena. A 6.5" coaxial speaker is glued to the bottom of a clear paint can, creating a seal that turns the can's metal base into a diaphragm. With just enough water and audio amplified to the speaker, the vibration produces cymatics as shown in the video below.

With an RGB LED stage light on top of each lantern, the interference patterns become even more mesmerizing.

Sound shapes the water. Water shapes the light that ripples through it. Light shapes the spaces where we observe and interact.

Components include:

2 - Clear paint cans

2 - Coaxial speakers, 6.5", 80W

1 - Amplifier, 2 channel, 100W

1 - Battery, 12V

1 - Stereo audio source

2 - RGB LED stage lights

Water