Reflective Resonance

This documentation was created as part of the course MAS.S60 Critical Matter: Emotive Design from Fashion to Urban Scale, taught by Dr. Behnaz Farahi at the MIT Media Lab, Fall 2025. Team members: Christina Cunningham, Helen Tang, and Ruipeng Wang.

Concept: An installation that transforms human voice into ripples and reactive light inside a mirrored environment inspired by the intertwined myths of Narcissus and Echo.

In the original myth, Echo is cursed to only be able to repeat the last words others have spoken and she falls in love with Narcissus. He spurns her advances which results in her death, and Narcissus is subsequently cursed to fall in love with his own reflection, leading to his own demise. Reinterpreting the myth of Narcissus and Echo allows the installation to transform a story of isolation and miscommunication into one of expanded perception. Narcissus’s reflection becomes a space for exploring identity rather than entrapment, and Echo’s limited voice becomes a model for nonverbal expression through vibration and movement. The vibration and water distortion disturbs the mirrored water, enabling the participant who stands in the palace of Narcissus, to have their image distorted and instead engage with the visual representation of the echo of their own voice. As the participant speaks, the installation responds through the transformation of voice into resonance rather than language. By reframing their constraints as possibilities, the installation offers a contemporary exploration of how self-image and communication can evolve beyond the boundaries set by the original myth.

Installation Supplies

1. Metal Shelf (or other reflective, water-tight box and lid) (here)
2. LED UV Lights (here)
3. LED Color Changing Lights (here)
4. Mylar Film (here)
5. Double Sided Tape
6. Mirrored Plexiglass (here)
7. 2 Gallons of Water
8. UV Reactive Dye (here)
9. 6 Subwoofers (here)
10. 3 Amplifiers (here)
11. 1 Audio Interface (Focusrite scarlett 18i20) (here)
12. Power Strips - with 6+ outlets
13. Touch Designer Software

Insert metal legs through the flat shelf (turned upside down to create a basin) with holes for the legs. Do not tighten screws, leave them loose for now. Place the second metal shelf, without leg holes, on top of the legs. Tighten down the screws through the top shelf onto the legs using the provided hex key until the top of the structure is stable. The bottom shelf should still be able to slide up and down.

Peel off the paper backside and attach the Color Changing LED Lights to the inside edge of the top shelf, covering all sides except the short side at the far end of the installation (where the mirror attaches). Repeat this process around the inside edge of the bottom shelf with the UV LED lights, similarly covering all sides except the far, short side. Plug both sets of lights into power strip.

Plug the audio interface into wall outlet and use USB-B cord to connect to computer. Plug all 3 amplifiers into the power strip and connect all 6 ports (two on each amplifier, blue annotated circles) to the audio interface channels using the interface's cords. Attach provided red and black wires to the 6 subwoofers (green annotated circle). Connect the subwoofers to the amplifiers by placing the red and black wires into the corresponding ports (yellow annotated circles).

Lift the bottom shelf and place all 6 subwoofers and their amplifiers under the shelf, and place the shelf down on top of the subwoofers. Lightly tighten the bottom shelf screws with the hex key so the shelf is stable.

Place tape along outer sides of the metal legs and the inner edge of the long sides of the shelves. Cut mylar film to 72" long and height to fit within distance between top and bottom shelves. Wrap film around outside legs, securing the film to the tape (see shape and tape lines in attached diagram). Repeat these steps so that mylar film covers both long sides of the frame.

Cut mirrored plexiglass film to fit along the far, short end of the frame, approximately 8.5" wide by height between the top and bottom shelf heights (along the interior edge so it meets the edge of the water.

Add 1 to 2 gallons of water to the bottom shelf, being careful to not get water on the LED lights. Add drops of the UV reactive dye to the water, up to 1 bottle of fluid (0.6 fl oz). Turn LED UV lights on and off to see the dye appear and disappear into the water in which the dye is suspended.

The technical workflow for using an LLM to control six subwoofers for water variation involves a multi-stage pipeline: first, the Language Model (LLM) analyzes the user's chat text to determine sentiment and intensity, outputting structured parameters (like frequency and volume levels) for six independent channels. Second, these parameters are ingested by TouchDesigner (TD), which uses them to generate and modulate six distinct low-frequency audio signals in real-time using CHOPs, including amplitude and frequency modulation to create the desired "water texture" effect, before applying safety limiting. Third, the six digital signals are routed from TD to a Focusrite multi-channel interface (DAC), which converts them to analog signals that are then fed into three separate amplifiers, with each amp driving two subwoofers. Finally, the six subwoofers are mechanically coupled to the water vessel, translating the unique frequency and volume profile of each channel's signal into complex, dynamic standing waves and visible water variations that physically respond to the user's conversation.