Multiple pendulums on pedestals perform individually timed repetitive movements. At some point, they all start behaving equally, and when all pendulums that are mounted on one pedestal move in sync, the swinging motion gradually converges. The effect of weight then causes each pendulum to swing in a random fashion again, but after a while, the pendulums are synchronized once again. In addition, sounds emitted from a computer based on the detected motion of each pendulum, overlap in various patterns, resulting in what sounds very much like a concert of minimal music.

“syncrowd” is a kinetic sound installation in which the natural “synchronization phenomenon” is utilized to synchronize the timing of multiple objects that initially move with different amplitudes and rhythms, while affecting each other’s behavior. Five “syncrowds” * repeatedly shift back and forth between the states of synchronization and asynchronization, each at a different tempo depending on its size. Visitors can witness the continuous process of the environment transforming in a self-organizing style and in complex ways, while generating undulating patterns or a state of disorder, from the individual pendulums’ behavior that, in each case, is quite simple in itself. While interfering with each other through the vibration of the frame they are mounted on, the pendulums form a crowd that moves in sync, in a way that looks as if controlled, but that is in fact based on physical law.

Planner / Conceptor: FUKUCHI Makoto
Hardware Engineer: NAKANE Satoshi
Software Engineer: MATSUYAMA Shuhei
Robot Engineer: SETO Yusuke
Sound Producer: ONODERA Yui
Architect / Experience Designer: ITAGAKI Kazuhiro
Scientist: HISHIDA Mafumi
Producer: HAYASHI Shigeyoshi