A8 Music, a music company in Shenzhen, China, now has splendidly dancing LEDs affixed to its office building, giving it a visual oomph to its external appearance. The lights display and “play” the songs that are being streamed by users online at that very moment. The structure appears like undulating sound waves even during the daytime as its mirrored façade reflects images of the sky and nearby surroundings even when the LEDs are not switched on. The real time music streaming is translated into LEDs once China's skies grow dark after dusk.
Behind this project is UNIT Urban New Idea Team Studio, an architectural team that focuses on urban design and functionality. It turned the building into an enormous equalizer that emits light pulses based on all of the data gathered from the music streamed through A8 Music’s online library. This urban development commenced in 2009 and was recently completed this year. In an interview, UNIT Studio’s founder Moyang Yang stated that “the approach for this project was to create a tower who embodies its function, thereby promoting the dynamism of music as well as the hosted user.”
All LEDs have been strategically arranged through a Scriabin keyboard method. As developed in the 1900s by synaesthetic composer Alexander Scriabin, this system assigns musical notes to a different color. The photo below illustrates which colors are associated with the notes.
This innovative building is great a pioneer of the applied data visualization concept used in an urban setting that shows what the people around you are listening to. The structure successfully unites sound waves and internet files, making the seemingly invisible concept of sound visible to the human eye.
Story via Design Boom
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