Designed and created a hardware prototype.

The Alter is a wooden structure which employs light sensors and Arduino to control music through changes in candle light.

The Altar is a collaboration with Robbie Tilton and Christie Leece.

Christie Leece - http://itp.nyu.edu/~cl2346/blog/ Katie Tibbetts - http://itp.nyu.edu/~kt922/myblog/ Robbie Tilton - http://www.robbietilton.com Music is a very powerful medium that many people use as a spiritual beacon that helps to guide, motivate, relax, and feel something greater than oneself. For such a powerful form of media we often see very bland modes to control it (mp3 players, home stereo systems, etc.), but why not give this medium the altar it deserves. In collaboration with Christie Leece and Katie Tibbetts – we created a physical computing piece called The Altar. The Altar uses candle light to play and adjust an audio composition that is meant to embrace the power of music. The piece was made with 17 photo cells, 1 Arduino Mega, and a whole lot of love. The tops of each tier is lazer cut (totaling 6 hours to engrave the entire piece). As we continue to improve the piece, we hope to place this in a public space (such as a church), to allow more guests outside the NYU ITP community to enjoy it. Overall, I’m really happy with the way the project turned out and feel there’s still a lot of room to explore experimental audio controls.