Concept – in 5 bullet points

Especially for the curious people like yourself, here is a list of the most

Frequently Asked Questions:

  1. Why did you design Social Soundmachine?

  2. How does Social Soundmachine work?

  3. What makes Social Soundmachine so special?

  4. Where can I see Social Soundmachine?

  5. Who ‘made’ Social Soundmachine?

And of course, the answers:

  1. Why did you design Social Soundmachine?

    2. In a world where everyone is digitally connected and face-to-face interactions are getting rare, music can truly bring people together. Social Soundmachine has a social function: spontaneous conversations happen and people feel greatly inspired by their creative collaboration.

  2. How does Social Soundmachine work?

    3. Well, there’re two angles to look at this question:

    • From a user perspective: please check out the demo video, that’ll give you a much richer walkthrough than any text-based explanation can possible do.
    • From a technical perspective: Social Soundmachine basically consists of a custom-made tabletop with a Direct Illumination multi-touch setup inside, enabling it to uniquely identify and locate physical objects on its surface. The main hardware components include a FireWire camera, notebook, digital video projector, an in-house developed projection surface, infrared illuminators and a unique set of fiducials (special ‘barcodes’) attached to the bottom of the game pieces.

  3. What makes Social Soundmachine so special?

    4. All audio content was specially composed in collaboration with dj’s and producers from different genres to ensure high-quality and suprising musical building blocks.
    While the sounds stay in rhythm and tune by the custom-made software, the interaction with physical objects is also very intuitive and accessible, which makes the collaborative experience of Social Soundmachine ultimate fun: anyone will feel like a real pro in no time!

  4. Where can I see Social Soundmachine?

    5. Social Soundmachine is exhibited internationally at numerous events and galleries and was shortlisted as finalist for the Dutch Design Awards 2009. Upcoming events for the public will be posted at the Facebook fanpage, so connect now to stay tuned. And please do check out the media section with a nice selection of pictures and videos from previous events.

    In 2011, the work around Social Soundmachine has also led to the public-accessible multitouch DJ tables at the restyled Lido Club of Holland Casino Amsterdam. Visitors can book time on these tables to play with a basic adaption of the Social Soundmachine, named “DJ Game”.

    Curators, event producers and really really REALLY big fans are welcome to contact for an exclusive physical demonstration at our studio in Amsterdam.

  5. Who ‘made’ Social Soundmachine?

    6. Social Soundmachine is initiated and designed by experience design director Ramon Schreuder (moving interaction), in collaboration with a whole range of other creatives including dj’s, producers and industrial designers (more info in the credits). The software application is using FlowML, a C++ multimedia framework developed by Rik Arends (Javeline).

    And last but not least, it were the thousands of people (maybe even you?) at events like STRP, Milano Design Week and Cinekid, who made it possible to really test, tune, break and fix Social Soundmachine iteratively, until reaching it’s current state.

Congratulations!

Wow, so you made it all the way down here and are still hungry for more?! Well, then there’s just one resort: please download the Social Soundmachine infosheet and then go “Print it, Scan it, Send it, Fax – Rename it” ;-)

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