SONG
Experience Design
Spatial Design
UX Design
Overview
This interactive system employs generative algorithms and machine learning technology to randomly trigger ancient musical scores and automatically perform them, recreating lost classical musical realms. The project aims to reflect on the impact of technological progress on perceptions of traditional culture, allowing modern audiences to rediscover the profound beauty of classical art through interactive experiences and immersive audiovisual restoration.
Time
2025 Summer
Categories
Interactive Installation
Creative AI
Tools
Process
Stable Diffusion
Figma
Python
Role
Interaction Designer
Creative Technologist
Insipration
Urban Anonymity
In contemporary urban environments, people often share the same physical spaces without meaningful interaction. Despite being surrounded by others, individuals frequently remain isolated within their own digital or personal worlds.
As everyday life becomes increasingly mediated by personal devices and digital communication, shared experiences in physical spaces become even more limited.
How might we design a shared musical experience that creates meaningful connections between residents in urban areas?
Music
Music has historically served as a universal medium capable of bridging this distance. Unlike verbal communication, music can create emotional resonance between individuals who have never met before.
In Chinese culture, the guqin embodies this idea of resonance. The well-known story of “High Mountains and Flowing Water” describes two strangers who recognized each other’s inner world through music.
Cultural COntext
Guqin
The guqin is the earliest plucked string instrument of the Han Chinese people, a treasure in Han culture, and the most revered musical instrument in ancient Chinese civilization. Ranked first among the Four Arts of qin (music), qi (chess), shu (calligraphy), and hua (painting), it has been regarded by scholars as the embodiment of refinement. Serving as an accompanying instrument for literati during poetic recitations, the guqin has remained an essential area of knowledge and a required discipline for scholars throughout history.
琴
棋
书
画
Pentatonic System
Traditional guqin music is based on a pentatonic scale rather than the seven-note system commonly used in Western music. Instead of Do Re Mi, traditional Chinese music uses the syllables Gong, Shang, Jue, Zhi, and Yu to represent the five tones.
Chinese System
Western System
宫 (文)
Do
商 (武)
Re
角
Mi
角 + 按音
Fa
徵
Sol
羽
La
羽 + 按音
Xi
Explore the Guqin Scale
DO
宫
Gong
String 1
Re
商
Shang
String 2
Mi
角
Jue
String 3
Sol
徵
Zhi
String 4
La
羽
Yu
String 5
按音
Stopped Tone
Technique
Gesture
While the pentatonic scale defines the tonal foundation of guqin music, its expressiveness does not come from pitch alone. What makes the guqin distinctive is how each note is shaped through subtle hand movements during performance. In other words, the scale provides the structure, but gesture gives the music its texture, rhythm, and emotional character.
By understanding this “grammar of touch,” we would like to ask that can these gestures become the first ice-breaking vocabulary for strangers in urban anonymity? Can the body, rather than the screen, mediate our search for contemporary Zhiyin?
Categories
Tap
Fingers lightly touch the strings, producing clear open notes or harmonics
Press
Press the string gently with fingertip to control pitch and dynamics
Slide
Glide fingertips smoothly along the string to connect different pitches
Pick
Flick the string inward with finger to create an upward surge in volume
Wipe
Pluck the string with right finger from inside to outside for a bright, flowing tone
Knead
Vibrate fingertip lightly on the string or use gliding to subtly adjust the tone
Installation
By collecting individual gesture data as they move to music, rhythmic differences and similarities among participants can be identified. Using ancient music as a medium for culture and perception, this data is fed into clustering algorithms for analysis, thereby identifying individuals whose rhythmic patterns align more closely. Similar audience members are mapped as each other's ‘kindred spirits’.
Resonance Mapping
微
Emphasizing subtlety and emotional nuance. Audience tend to be meticulous, introspective, emotionally rich yet reserved who prefers micro-variations
远
Notes linger like distant echoes, inspiring boundless vision. Audience tend to be broad-minded, ambitious who prefers strives for the state of “forgetting both self and instrument”
清
Pure, bright, and lucid, free from muddiness or noise. Audience tend to be a refined, upright character with a strong sense of order who prefers bright, crisp, stone-like timbres
淡
Simple, natural, unadorned. Audience tend to values serenity, returning to simplicity, and prefers steady rhythm, even dynamics, minimal emphasis
Resonant Field
Beyond core interactions, the transitional space reserved in front of the wall extends interactive events from fleeting touchpoints into sustainable social chains by creating temporary social buffer zones. Before and after their experience, audiences are actively guided into this area, transforming the “view-and-leave” gallery model into genuine interaction where they can linger and engage in conversation. This allows the digital experience to transition seamlessly and solidify into tangible real-world connections.
< 25%
Similarity
The four spaces rotate into a triangular formation, facing outward. Interactive walls act as separators between individual participants.
Outcome
