This programme ran from 2008-2010 at the Pervasive Media Studio. For more projects like these please visit the Studio website.

Projects 2010

Company Profile

nu desine is a small company created by Adam Place. Its first major project was to distribute, develop, upgrade and maintain the new electronic instrument, the AlphaSphere.

See Adam's graduating project, as part of the Interdisciplinary design society at the University of Brighton here: http://bit.ly/bANkb

Journal Authors

Adam Place

Richard de Lancey

AlphaSphere

by nu desine

Can we create a new electronic musical instrument that allows players to programme and trigger sounds through the use of sensors and smart materials, to offer a new type of performance experience?

AlphaSphere is an electronic musical instrument with a tactile, sensory interface that offers a new way of interacting and performing with digital sound and media.

Development of the instrument's tactile sensor-based interface was the initial focus of the project. This included researching the most appropriate and effective technologies to be integrated into the design, to expand and enrich the experience of playing the instrument. By exploring smart materials, pervasive technologies and interaction design, nu desine developed the first AlphaSphere prototype: www.alphasphere.com

Watch the project video

Journal Entries

Journal Entries

Sandbox Showcase

Sun 20 Feb, 2011

Media Sandbox has been fantastic, so good to get the prototype together. Has really been a labour of love, though there's still a way to go till production. We're all looking forward to the next steps, we've been talking with some exciting industry insiders and engineering expertise in the last week and expect this to continue over the next few days.

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alphasphere.com

Fri 11 Feb, 2011

AlphaSphere now has an online home… Check it out right now at… http://www.alphasphere.com

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Better than CAD

Thu 3 Feb, 2011

Since publishing the photo in the post below last week, a lot of people have asked us if the picture is real or a CAD (computer aided design) rendering. To clarify, here are some behind-the-scenes pictures from the photoshoot. Our photographer was iShed's very own Benjie Croce.

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All of the lights

Wed 26 Jan, 2011

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Engineering the future

Tue 25 Jan, 2011

From state-of-the-art laser fabrication facilities, a computer science department with a passion for music, cutting-edge audio production facilities and the city's resident robotics lab… constructing this instrument has offered us a glimpse into the not-too-distant future.

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