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 on DShed

Journal Entries

Journal Entries

The Significance of the Z-axis

Mon 10 Jan, 2011

Cast your mind back to 1999, Britney Spears topped the charts, the Red Hot Chili Peppers declared Californication and a masked band named after a noose released their self-titled album, Slipknot.

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nu year - nu logo

Mon 3 Jan, 2011

In the last month of 2010, we ran an open call for designers to submit new ideas for nu desine. Just before Christmas we received a fantastic submission from Rebbecca Tebbutt, a recent graduate of the University of Falmouth, with an idea for the AlphaSphere logo. As you can see, it is derived from the Greek lowercase alpha - α , but combines this with the n & u from the nu desine logo.

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So this is Christmas…

Sat 25 Dec, 2010

What a difference three months make… From concept to design

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Construction phase initiated

Wed 15 Dec, 2010

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Scenes from the production line

Fri 3 Dec, 2010

Months of careful planning, discussion, negotiation, focused attention to technical detail after technical detail; are falling down to a period of a couple of weeks. The fabrication of the skeletal structure of the instrument, the electronic and software engineering, unfolding all at once.

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