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Immersive Rooms

Interactive Sound Installation

An interactive audiovisual installation built in TouchDesigner that translates sound into realtime visuals.

The system analyses the low, mid and high bands of live audio and transforms them into dynamic, cymatics-like shapes and particle behaviour. It responds instantly to voice, music or environmental noise, letting viewers see the rhythm and intensity of a sound in motion.

In this showcase a percussionist plays the room: drums trigger motion, colour and particle reactions through live audio analysis. The performer shapes the visuals through any instrument, from drums to voice, turning sound into a controller.

Client
Infinia
Year
2024
Role
Interactive Visuals · TouchDesigner
Tools
  • TouchDesigner
  • Audio Analysis
  • Particle Systems
  • GLSL

In the room

Sound as a controller

Low, mid and high frequencies control the colour, intensity and seed of each pattern, while particles are drawn toward them, forming cymatic-like figures — the visual cousins of the shapes that sand makes on a vibrating plate. Nothing is sequenced: the room only moves when someone makes a sound.

The percussionist from above, hands on the congas, the floor around him lit blue
The percussionist in a white shirt against a wall of violet cymatic pattern
The percussionist playing, the green pattern moving on the wall behind
Hands striking a conga, the pattern blurred green behind
Yellow and cyan line patterns on the wall, a white arc of light spreading across the floor
Seen from above: the percussionist at the centre of a green kaleidoscopic floor
Seen from above: the percussionist at the centre of a violet kaleidoscopic floor

Projection mapping

Seeds for the sound to perturb

The patterns are authored as wall panoramas and floor passes at the installed ratio, so the room reads as one continuous surface. Each is a starting state; the audio then perturbs it live, so no two performances leave the same trace.

Wall panorama: a red kaleidoscopic lattice

drag or use the arrow keys to turn around the room

Wall panorama: a magenta lattice of crossing diagonals

drag or use the arrow keys to turn around the room

Wall panorama: an amber lattice

drag or use the arrow keys to turn around the room

Wall panorama: a pink lattice with mirrored figures

drag or use the arrow keys to turn around the room

Floor pass: a magenta X of particles
Floor pass: a fine magenta lattice
Floor pass: a deep red X pattern

Workflow

Built entirely in TouchDesigner

The workflow combines audio analysis, particle systems and real-time shader control. Live sound inputs drive visual parameters such as colour, motion and pattern generation, and there is no timeline — the piece is exactly as long as the performance.

The TouchDesigner network: audio analysis feeding a chain of operators over a magenta cymatic pattern

Setup

Twelve projectors, one workstation

Twelve projectors are driven by a single workstation equipped with three GPUs, which distribute synchronised video outputs to each projector; the audio analysis runs on the same machine, so the room reacts within a frame of the sound.

12
Projectors
3
GPUs
1
Workstation
3
Frequency bands
A percussionist at a pair of congas, a green cymatic pattern projected across the walls and floor around him