latent box
A tactile interface for navigating latent space — touch, pressure, and gesture translated into an evolving ambient soundscape generated by a custom RAVE neural audio model.
01visuals
03design artifacts
A tactile interface for navigating latent space. Touch, pressure, and gesture are translated into an evolving ambient soundscape generated by a custom RAVE neural audio model.
about
The work responds to Alyson Denny's Photon Motion (2022) — looping silent videos of refracted light through motorized glass, abstract enough to read as graphic scores yet too fluid to pin down. Latent Box takes that ambiguity as an invitation: rather than simply watching, participants step into a feedback loop where their gestures shape the sonic texture, becoming collaborators in its ongoing abstraction.
The interface is intentionally minimal. A capacitive touch grid maps gesture across an X/Y plane; a pressure-sensitive velostat strip enables expressive modulation; a rotary encoder navigates between sonic palettes. There is no visual display of interaction — feedback is entirely sonic. Like Denny's visuals, the system embraces emergence, entropy, and blur rather than precision.
how it works
An Arduino Mega reads two MPR121 capacitive touch sensors (up to 144 touch inputs), velostat pressure strips, and I2C rotary encoders — all inlaid beneath laser-cut acrylic panels. Sensor data routes via serial to a Max patch, which maps gestures to parameters inside a RAVE model running in a Max for Live device within Ableton. The full signal chain — touch to timbre — runs in real time with no pre-composed audio.
credits
- Kyle Smith — hardware design, local infrastructure, sensor integration, spatialization
- Ishaan Jagyasi — RAVE model, TouchDesigner integration, generative audio
- Context: Interactive Music, Georgia Tech, Spring 2025