Ghost Box - A Sound Sculpture Inspired By Short Wave Radio

Ghost Box - A Sound Sculpture Inspired By Short Wave Radio

Inspired by short wave radios, artist and musician Steve Parker created an interactive sound installation, using the Touch Board.

Ghost Box is a playable sound sculpture modelled after a WWII era short wave radio, inviting users to touch brass instruments to play various sounds. For this interactive sound installation, Steve Parker used the Touch Board, which was connected to the brass instruments via wires. When these brass instruments were touched, the sculpture played different looped audio clips of coded transmissions, including Morse Code, spirituals, the Hebrew Shofar, and the Iron Age Celtic carnyx.

Embedded into the sound sculpture were a series of musical scores on paper that incorporate maps and icons of the WWII Ghost Army, the functional wires of the attached electronics, and map pins. Two headphones were attached to the Touch Board and users were able to combine sounds, allowing them to compose their own unique sound experience.

Steve exhibited this interactive sound sculpture in various locations, including the Cue Art Foundation in New York. The interactivity of this art piece and the ability to have more than one person play with it was well received and prompted the arts centre to visit this exhibition in pairs. 

Images and Video: Sarah Frankie Linder & Jose Lozano

This project first appeared on Steve's website.

Do you want to create your own interactive installation? Explore the Touch Board and learn how to turn objects into sensors.

Read about a similar installation: Wind Chimes by Jeff Kolar

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