Soft Sound

EJTech is an experimental art and technology laboratory based in Budapest, Hungary, which focuses its artistic research on the synergy between physical and digital, on human-machine interaction through interactive installations and dynamic works of art. The name of the studio comes from the initials of the two founders Esteban and Judit (Esteban De La Torre and Judit Eszter Kárpáti).

Soft Sound is a research project focused on textile audio speakers, soft speakers that combine the texture of a fabric with sound emission. This soft circuit solution uses fabric as an audio output surface and can be applied to almost any fabric. By allowing to feel vibrations through the fabric, this project can transform the sound into a more tangible artifact, using fabrics as an audio emission surface, and creating multisensory experiences.

How does this system work? A pair of electric wire coils made of conductive materials (copper and silver) are hot pressed onto different types of fabric, melting them together. These coils behave in the same way as those used in more traditional speakers, vibrating on certain frequencies when electric current flows through them to create sound.

Photo: courtesy EJTech

The material can be made to measure, and its applications concern fabrics both for interiors (such as curtains) and clothing (wearable technology).

Photo: courtesy EJTech

“Sound is an expressive medium that has gained more and more ground in visual arts in recent decades, although this statement seems contradictory. Man has not always been dominated by vision. Indeed, the primordial domain of hearing has only gradually been replaced by that of vision. Eyesight is directional and it isolates; while sound is omnidirectional and inclusive. While the sense of sight implies exteriority, sound creates and experiences interiority. Sound is a living organism that presents itself together with visual, spatial and social elements.” says the duo EJTech.