Sasha Leitman

“All of nature is a great wave phenomenon” - Louis de Broglie

Big Wave Sound seeks to explore the fundamental similarities of two profound human experiences – ocean waves and sound waves - by creating an acoustically unique reverberant space that draws people into an immersive experience of sound.

Composed of a skeleton of stainless steel tubing, covered in bent and riveted stainless steel sheet-metal, the viewer/listener will be able to walk roughly 35ft into the tunnel of the wave. Surrounding them, transducers will vibrate the sheet-metal at audio rates, essentially creating a giant speaker membrane. These vibrations will be audible in the same way that a typical stereo speaker is audible – the difference being that it is metal that generates the sound instead of the paper or cloth diaphragm in conventional speakers. Naturally this will affect the timbre of the sound.

The vibration transducers will be placed in a series of columns, which will allow composers to control where the sound orginates in the sculpture and move the sound location within the duration of the piece. For more detailed information on the audio techniques and to listen to test examples click here.

The sculpture will be equipped with a variety of audio inputs so that musicians can ‘jam’ with the reverberant sculpture, composers can create specifically for the sculpture or interact with live percussionists who might use mallets and brushes to ‘play’ the sculpture, or so that passers by can simply plug in their IPhone and hear their favorite tune surround them.

The result will range from multi sensory experience to titanic interactive instrument.

For more information on this project, to obtain engineering plans, or to commission a similar work, please contact me.