Description

If Life Was Music is a modular interactive sculpture that symbolizes how life is never just one thing, it can be calm and harmonious or loud and chaotic. The experience changes depending on the angle from which it’s viewed and how it’s constructed.

Users can create a melody by assembling the sculpture either horizontally or vertically. The direction they choose determines the tone of the resulting sound. The sculpture is composed of five cubes, each representing a different instrument: drums, piano, guitar, and vocals. The initial cube, which begins silently, marks the starting point of the interaction.

An L-shaped board has been designed to guide users, indicating the different ways they can engage with the sculpture.

Rules

Interaction begins when the silent cube is placed at the intersection of both the horizontal and vertical paths.
To activate the melody, users must place the remaining cubes in the correct ascending order:
1.Drums
2.Piano
3.Guitar
4.Vocals
The direction in which the cubes are arranged determines the mood of the melody. Horizontal arrangement produces a calm and uplifting version of the melody, while vertical arrangement triggers a melancholic version using the same instruments.
The vocal cube remains the same in both directions and marks the completion of the melody.
As each cube is placed, its corresponding sound is added to the loop.
The loop continues building until the final vocals cube is placed.
Once all cubes are in position and the melody is complete, the full composition will continue looping until any of the cubes are removed.

Individual Reflection – If Life Was Music

This project was the first time I really thought about how to express emotions through structure and interaction. In If Life Was Music, we used five cubes to represent different instruments. Users could create a melody by arranging the cubes in different orders and directions, and each combination would lead to a different emotional atmosphere.

I was in charge of the first and most basic cube. It didn’t have complex sounds or special effects like the others, but I thought it was important because it represented the “starting point” of the music—just like emotions often begin with a small moment. I chose this cube because I wanted to explore how something simple can still carry meaning.

What I learned most from this project was that creativity is important, but making something usable and understandable is just as important. At first, our design was too complicated, but after getting feedback from the teacher, we simplified it. In the end, the experience actually turned out better that way.