A stress-reducing explorable musical object

Abstract

In this thesis, an explorable musical object - which is meant to help reduce anxiety and stress in the user - was designed and built. Using the program Pure Data, output data from an Arduino was manipulated to create varied tones when several pressure, bending, and soft potentiometer sensors were activated. These sensors were embedded in a soft, spherical outer shell made of roto-cast silicone. The final object was fully contained within this outer shell, as a Raspberry Pi computer was used to run Pure Data so it did not have to be plugged in. The sound created was output through a radio transmitter connected to a radio and headphones, again so the instrument could be fully contained within its outer shell.