The AlloSphere

By christine on September 22nd, 2009, 9:25 pm 3 Comments

Scanning TED.com for an interesting topic to blog about, I stopped at a video highlighting the work of JoAnn Kuchera-Morin, an electronic music composer and the director of the Center for Research in Electronic Art Technology (CREATE) at UC Santa Barbara. She is best known for her invention of an instrument called The AlloSphere, and I was once again fascinated by a technology used for visualizing complex scientific data in an artistic and engaging way.

The AlloSphere is a 3-story metal sphere that functions like a gigantic digital microscope, allowing up to 20 researchers to stand inside it and be fully immersed in the data they are studying, from biological brain patterns to the activity of electrons. The users are brought closer to the object of their study with the AlloSphere’s incorporation of 3D images, artistically rendered subject matter, and aurally pleasing sounds that create musical patterns. This tool allows for the disciplines of math, engineering, science, and art to merge into one, creating a research/ learning space that  is fully immersive and interactive.

The video explains the highlights of the  AlloSphere in detail, and is well worth watching!

(p.s. I wasn’t able to embed the video directly onto the blog, either!)

Category: blog | Tags: AlloSphere biology electronic music JoAnn Kuchera-Morin music patterns science | Permalink: The AlloSphere