Audio Massage Furniture

by cesar harada

14K3323

Intro: Audio Massage Furniture

this furniture is prototyped for 2 main functions :
1- composing and listening to electronic music while laid directly on the speaker
2- furniture to give a full massage with audio synchronised files

STEP 1: Drawing the Idea

At uni we had this music remix workshop : i wanted to participate but i also wanted to feed my research on forcefeedback interfaces ... so i develloped simultaneously
- a musical remixed synchronised with
- a massage performance, lighted and filmed
- the making of a sensitive stimulating furniture (research sketches)

STEP 2: Body Path

The massage is engineered like an electronical cicuit : i try to follow the nervous system and energy lines. The two black lines are the lines i draw with my hands on the body of my patient.

I used this schema also to synchronise my work with the lighting assistant and the musician : the position and the gesture of my hands on the body of the patient indicates what instrument to play or what colour to project on the scene. So Left cicuit is only for colour. RIght cicuit with timecode and musical notes for the musician with 5 different electronic instruments coresponding to body parts.

STEP 3: Partition


LINE 1 = DERUSH
choosing music samples to thrill the patient : from very delicate to super hardcore music back to delicate music to be looped and repeated on request.

LINE 2 = COLORS
Blue : deep and slow
green : mysterious
orange : energetic
red : furious
These colors are projected on the scene during the performance.

LINE 3 = EXPRESSIVE MUSICAL DRAWINGS
To learn music it's very practial to make an expressive illustration of the music, like this you can analyse personaly music, understand the structure.

LINE 4 = DEFORMED BODY
in my case as the massage choreography is quite simple and cyclic it is possible to draw a deformed human body adapted to the timecode + orange lines for my hands path.


During the live performance i only need the 2 last lines to make sure the music and massage movements are synchronised (thanks to the time code).

STEP 4: Unplugged Structure

OBJECT 1 = LAPTOP
Powerbook 12' Mac with USB and firewire cables

OBJECT 2 = EXTERNAL HARDDRIVE
For this application as all my music (including VST instruments for midi) are in th external HD, connected by firewire to laptop

OBJECT 3 = MIDI KEYBOARD
Midi piano keyboard connected by USB to laptop. The sound played is coming out the keyboard as it's sound master output is much more powerfull and easier to drive than from the computer small keys.

OBJECT 4 = MASSIVE 2 x 450 Watt SOUND AMPLIFIER
connected by speakon cables to

OBJECT 5a = FILTER
This filter separates an audi mono signal into high and low tones to redistribute them to

OBJECT 5b = BOOMER
The 38 cm (diameter) and 500 Watt boomer is impressive but unexpectedly unexpensive ( 27Euros !)

OBJECT5b = TWEETER
dynamic tweeter motor and speaker shape (21 euros : expensive !)

All objects are not under tension on the photo

STEP 5: Filter, Speakon Connector

Right to left :
-speakon connector to IN
-filter with lightbulb fuse
-up OUT to Tweeter
down OUT to Boomer

all connected with audio cables

STEP 6: Music Composing Workstation

so this is the composing station with every control at a hand distance.

STEP 7: Deaf DJ Studio

I simply covered the boomer with a thick paperboard and a textile to lay confortable and warm while working. Note the tweeter is oriented directly to my head direction by placed quite far. be carefull : you might want to feel the hit of music vibration as strong as possible but it may vary a lot depending what instrument you are using so preferably make tests before covering the speaker with your loudest percussions and sub-bass waves (some bass are "painfull" for the speaker but are almost unhearable especially under 50 HZ ).

I highly recommend the use of this furniture for deaf DJ's

WARNING : THIS MACHINE IS EXITING AND ADDICTIVE BUT IT ACCELERATE DIGESTIVE PROCESS. THE EFFECT ON ORGANS VARIES FROM PERSON TO PERSON ... it's GRRREAT

STEP 8: Massage Rehearsal

my performance incroporates a massage, this is a reharsal in a doggy basement ...

STEP 9: Video of the Audio-massage Performance Coming Soon

video of the audio-massage performance coming soon !!!
You have no understood some things but a video of the performance including the work of the lighting assistant and the musician is coming soon.
Who will be volunteer to test this machine and the experimental massage ? hehehe ! please come back soon ! cesar harada

23 Comments

Mr. Smart Kid 16 years ago

1 thing its a 12 INCH NOT 12 FOOT AND IF IT WAS FOOT IT WOUILD BE FEET

cesar harada 16 years ago

HAHAHAAH!! you are right smart kid ! HAHAHAAH! sorry ! (why do they speak in inches !? cm are so simpler !) HAHAH !

Gamernotnerd 14 years ago

We've never converted. As you may have noticed, we're not the smartest county.

jeffreyf 17 years ago

But did you find the elusive brown note? If so, call Mythbusters pronto.

kiwi_soccer_maniac 17 years ago

on Braniac "British Science Show hosted by Richard Hammond" they played the "brown" note. They said it was used in france to control riots on sumthin and when watching the show they warned viewers to have a toilet nearby but it didn't do jack

Derin 14 years ago

Oh,I watched that episode.I like Brainiac. YELLOWY BLACKY GOODNESS

cesar harada 14 years ago

Wouhou, more details on the brown note please !

jeffreyf 17 years ago

Mythbusters claims no, but I suspect very low frequencies could have an effect, much like any sort of vibration.

Derin 15 years ago

I would like to try this out!

totO))) 17 years ago

where did you find a 500 w speaker for 27€??!

mark101 17 years ago

RE :BROWN I think I found the brown note one time accidentally. For it to work, you can't expect it. On the myth busters they were expecting it, so it can't work. I didn't have a scope on the circuit to know what frequency it was. I recall I was listening to the (constant) frequency for about a minute. Maybe I had a bad lunch that day? I guess it was around 15 Hz

cesar harada 17 years ago

thanks. Do you know any web-page with sound frequencies and it's effect on people ? military use included ? thanks

mark101 17 years ago

I don't think sound effects work reliably, if they work. A sounds effect is up to the person hearing it, some people are unaffected by sound. a Reliable device they just made is the microwave gun that instantly heats up your skin and you fall down or run away from the pain. If they had a sound (working) machine we would know about it.

cesar harada 17 years ago

it may not be as subjective as musical taste i think. Music ou soundwaves can really affect universally if it gets physical, intense. Music Psychology and Musicotherapy, even if their applications is not as obviously critical as Audio-weapons are common study areas, so i bet they are proven their efficency. But what i want to do is not a healt-care tool, it's for an artistic experiment so, even if i'm looking for efficency i may end up creating things empirically ... I wish it did exist as a common furniture, or music instrument, what i'm really interested in now s to compose special music for it.

mark101 17 years ago

Oh you are the maker of this instructable! "brown note" was for jeffreyf. I made a similar device(to this instructable) a few years back. What I did was make a custom bed frame and installed a 6-8 inchlarge woofer in the middle, under the matress. I then listened to music with the bass turned up.

evy-wevy 17 years ago

layin on big speakers CAN'T be good for your balls.

nasser 17 years ago

My balls are very happy at the moments. I must try harder. MARACAS !!!!
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