Building the carousel with its mechanics, electronics & loudspeakers

The whole carousel with its loudspeakers and electronics was developed from scratch in Cologne. The carousel mechanics was designed and realized by the engineer Michael Reyl (Kunstmechanik). The artist & sculptor David Fried helped to create the spherical arylic housing of the loudspeakers, which were finally produced in his studio in Düsseldorf. The artist's basic idea for the electronics was to create a unit of sine generator, amplifier and illuminated loudspeaker which receives control data simply over a local network. This electronics based on Arduino was finally realized by the engineer Gary Grutzek.

impression from the test setup in the industrial hall in Cologne (2:12 min.)

In principle each adressable loudspeaker can be controlled via the console sending a string simply via network (OSC/UDP). For the composition the artist programmed a sequencer like control software in Puredata (PD). Not only the loudspeakers can be controled but also the speed of the carousel. Additional sensor based velocity measurements allow to synchronize the rotation with the metrum of the composition.

Test setup in an industrial hall in Cologne, February 2014.

In February 2014 a test installation was set up in an industrial hall in Cologne and first outdoor tests with a crane were performed. The preparations in Cologne are also documentated in the six minute feature Das Universum im Museum on the German daily science related boadcast nano on .

Michael Reyl explains the mechanics of the gear to the associate director of Hubble Space Telescope Antonella Nota (ESA/STScI).

Special thanks for help and consultancy for the Cologne setup also to: Daniel T. Braun, Alexander Gurko, Jan Meulemann, Martin Nawrath, Tim Riecke, Ariane Riefert, Olaf Roggendorf, Patrik Roth, Johanna & Miriam Seidler, Wonbaek Shin, Dirk Specht. Thanks for improving the PD code to Janus Fouché.