Aug 6, 2016 | By Tess

Recently we’ve been coming across a number of really cool projects that have combined 3D modeling and printing with music and sound. Projects like DJ Piotr Bejnar’s awesome 3D printed smart bracelets, which helped him to interact with his audiences in a new and dynamic way, and AntiVJ’s stunning 3D printed album art, have really brought a new dimension to music and performance. Now, another project that is showing the creative possibilities of combining digital design and manufacturing with music has peaked our interest.

Budapest-based designer Nora Kaszanyi has created a beautiful special edition monograph for Hungarian composer Béla Bartók’s Mikrokosmos, a six-volume collection of 153 progressive piano pieces (written between 1926 and 1939). The six volumes, each presented with a cover printed with distinct geometric visualizations, are all neatly packaged in a both striking and minimalist 3D printed case.

The audio-visual project was Kaszanyi’s final project for her BA at the Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design in Budapest. And as she explains on her Behance page for Mikrokosmos, “My work is a graphic transcription of [Bartók’s] huge work that combines typography and visualization of the music.”

As you may have noticed, each of the protruding shapes on the 3D printed case corresponds to a shape on each of the volume covers. For instance, volume 1 is a plain rectangle, while volume 2 is characterized by an irregular rhombus, and volume 3 is a diamond shape, and so on. As one commenter points out, the visualizations on the volume covers even recall one of the most well known album cover artworks of all time: Joy Division’s Unknown Pleasures. With their white/grey on black line graphics, which evoke the movement of sound waves, letters and words can also be distinguished as emerging from the visualizations.

As Nora Kaszanyi explains, “Each of the six parts of a geometric visual element is reduced down and built up in a single point-grid system (which is meant to symbolize the structure of the cosmos). The surface shapes are echoed titles of the sections, imitating the motion of the piano sounding title pieces.”

The artist’s stated goal with the project was to create a music booklet that not only looks interesting and catches the eye, but that incorporates music and sound’s own motifs into its design. With the sound-wave inspired visualizations, all tied together with a bold 3D printed casing, Bartók’s Mikrokosmos has arguably never looked so cool. Check out the photos below for more:

 

 

Posted in 3D Printing Application

 

 

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