La Scala Infinita
Interactive Design » La Scala Infinita
M.C. Escher works recall within a glimpse the concept of Illusion. Illusions act through perception and tikle mental processes.
In 1964, cognitive scientist Roger Newland Shepard released an article entitled Circularity in judgements of relative pitch, where he described a psychoacoustic effect perceived while hearing a finite sequence of special crafted tones.
Similar to Penrose Stairs as the visual illusion counterpart, Shepard's scale has no beginning nor ending points.
02L La Scala Infinita ("The infinite stairway") blazes its own trail towards Shepard's illusion, in a suitable way for museums, scientific fairs and festivals.
12 pads, placed along an inner path of a hovering orbital, gather the pressure of one or more walking visitor. Each pad, when triggered, emits one Shepard's tone. Walking along the shape of the orbital, both clockwise and counter-clockwise, lets the visitor to feel the effect.
La Scala Infinita was commissioned in 2003 by POST (Perugia Officina per la Scienza e la Tecnologia).
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This simulation clears the illusion concept. Hover (with mouse cursor) the orange pads in a specific order (clockwise or counter-clockwise) and listen to the tone sequence.
- Carrying framework with electrical network and pads receptacles
- 12 pressure pads
- MDMA version
- 12 graintable synthesizers 02L MDMA
- 12 audio amplifiers with independent loudspeakers
- TECLA version
- K-System data collector
- TECLA v1 or higher
- Single or dual channel audio amplifier with loudspeakers
| Attachment | Size |
|---|---|
| La Scala Infinita project white paper (tech, ITA only) | 551.22 KB |
| Wiring network white paper (tech, ENG) | 76.38 KB |
| MDMA v0.1r2 operating manual (ITA) | 705.08 KB |