MiLute

Personal Project Individual Design 2023

Explanation

The challenge was to design and build a compact travel instrument with limited resources of a 3d printer and some basic hand tools. The instrument is designed to maximize the capabilities of 3d printing by creating geometry nearly impossible to make out of wood. It was designed to have 8 strings to have the range of both bass and guitar. It is a 24 Tet microtonal fret scale to be able to play non-western music, opening it up to more unconventional experimentation.

Bee's Eye Flythrough

Taking inspiration from seashells, and folded horn speakers, I wanted to create a way to tune the instrument's resonation chamber by changing its volume. This instrument has bass strings so to be able to amplify lower resonations, there needs to be a longer chamber for longer standing waves. This length can be adjusted by sliding the copper pipe loop out of the neck, almost like a trombone. Here is a flythrough animation of the sound pathway to better illustrate the interior geometry.

3d Printed Instrument

Design Process

Using AI for Ideation

"Positive Prompt: exotic string instrument, weapon, ergonomic , lute, generative design, funky, latus, art Nuevo, organic bone like form, radical design, wood sculpture, hollow, seashell, player port, floating pickups, lute for sea bard, flute buttons Negative prompt: boring, normal,"

As this instrument was 3d printed and an exhibition of a totally unique manufacturing process, It was important to strike the balance between traditional recognizable features of a musical instrument and its strange alien nature. Using Stable Diffusion AI was a helpful step in generation ideas for forms and feeling the design should evoke. Of course the image generation AI dose not understand things like physics or ergonomics so it was only used n the ideation stage of this project.

"ivory generative design organic forms, complex curves, musical instrument from an alien world, string instrument, ebony fingerboard, ergonomic form, generative design, instrument design"

Ideation Sketches

What I would do different next time:

Modularity
Address fast switch tuner issues
Bridge redesign
Structural support and generative design
More consideration for printing grain direction of certain parts

Page updated

Google Sites

Report abuse