3D printing has spawned many amazing projects that hold within themselves a multitude of technologies spanning across the human technological advancements of the past two centuries (at least). 3D printing itself is the culmination of a process that began with mechanical automation, passed through electronics and rose out of the virtual world to give each one of us total control over matter.
In a way, that process is perfectly represented in the latest project by Left Field Labs — a 3D printed personal music box. The Venice, CA, company self describes itself as “based on the understanding that technology is pushing humanity towards a new era of art, culture and commerce.”
Some of the technological advances that took place during the mechanical industrial revolution of the 1800’s were transformed into art through the invention of the music box, an instrument that produces sounds through a set of pins placed on a revolving cylinder (or disc) so as to pluck the tuned teeth of a steel comb. In other words, a music box, or carillon, is a portable music player.
Today, the technological advances of the virtual, social and digital manufacturing revolution can be channelled into a new kind of music box, one that is made to sound different for each one of us. That is exactly what Left Field Labs did to create their Music Drop.
First they analysed the structure of traditional music boxes and viewed a few possible shared designs from the Thingiverse network. Then they used a Makerbot 3D printer to produce a prototype and quickly determine how efficient the original design was. After figuring out the mechanical workings, they began to design the outer shape in order to create a shell that would acoustically resonate, shaped to amplify the volume.
That, paradoxically, was the easy part. The most complex process, that which makes a 3D printed music box dramatically different from a XIX century music box, is the ability to personalize it and make it unique. To achieve that, Left Field Labs created an online interface for easily editing a tune. Just a few years ago, a Web App such as this would have been an amazing feat in and of itself: now, however, it is a relatively common means to turn virtual music into a real object.
An Html5 audio step sequencer gives users the tools to quickly create the(ir) music while the WebGL protocol was used to create a model that allowed for “programmatic alteration of the disc’s geometry as the user created his or her song,” then made it possibile to take that geometry and transform it into an .stl printable file.
Apparently the 3D printing revolution will not do away with humans. At least not in Left Field Labs’ vision. Its parts are 3D printed but each Music Drop is assembled by hand. Unfortunately that also means that at the time of writing, orders and submissions have been suspended due to overwhelming demand. Then again this also means there is overwhelming enthusiasm.
