This version of Sound Spirals used field recorded soundscapes of human voices, physical actions such as walking on gravel paths and insect sounds as material for computational, digitally-fabricated sculptures. The main aesthetic of the spirals was one of proportionality, periodicity, and materiality, which are all intrinsic to the creation of sound waves. They are complex objects that are intended to be seen from a variety of angles and also, in some cases, to be in tactile exhibitions that highlight their materiality and physical texture. They demonstrate the potential for spirals forms to encode periodic data and explore questions of legibility in data sculpture.

This presentation of the Sound Spirals project demonstrated the process of making the sculptures, from recorded audio to computer sculpting studio. Also discussed was how the process of making these objects demonstrated the potential of using 3D printed plastics to effectively to create data sculptures. This was not without engineering challenges to create free-standing and support-free forms that deeply affected the aesthetics of the sculptures. The works were situated in the historical context of experiments with capturing sound in physical objects, highlighting Thomas Edison’s recorded sounds cut into wax cylinders that begat vinyl records and his predecessor Édouard-Léon Scott de Martinville who in the 1850’s invented a machine that recorded sound as pictures using a moving stylus and soot from a burning candle.