Cryophone: A Dry Ice-Powered Musical Installation

cryophone

[Dmitry] is a bit of an industrial artist / hacker, and he’s recently finished this interesting and interactive audio exhibit called the Cryophone.

As you know, dry ice is terribly fun. When placed in water, it sublimates from its solid to gaseous phase rapidly, releasing carbon dioxide gas and causing a drastic (and sometimes violent) temperature change. [Dmitry’s] project attempts to amplify the sounds of these reactions and create music(?) using data from sensor inputs in the system. He uses piezo elements, temperature sensors, and an Arduino to generate an algorithmic composition from the various sensors, which a Mac Mini then synthesizes and outputs as audio in 6 channels.

The result is an eerie collection of noises that would do well in a haunted house or a horror movie. Take a listen for yourself after the break, and if you missed it, check out another unique, audio-based art installation: ‘conus.’

8 thoughts on “Cryophone: A Dry Ice-Powered Musical Installation

  1. From the title/photo, I was expecting some kind of actual self-playing wind instrument powered by the CO2 subliming out of a block of dry ice… Still kinda cool, I guess… if you like listening to creepy sounds in bright, white rooms :/

  2. Why does hackaday always screw up the titles? It’s not dry ice powered…

    Most of the sound isn’t even related to the physical reaction, it’s an artist going nuts with syntheziser inputs and then mislabeling his work…

  3. Aww, I think I would have found this cooler if I weren’t lead to believe it was something else. Computer generated sound and music is an interesting topic, but I was expecting this thing to make music using CO2 vapor or from the amplified sound of the dry ice in water.

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