What would it feel like to experience a song through temperature, with the rhythm pulsing in the form of heat? The Princeton Laptop Orchestra (PLOrk) explored this intriguing question in their concert debuting the “Thermal Music” project, a collaboration between Forrest Meggers, associate professor in Princeton’s School of Architecture and the Andlinger Center for Energy and the Environment, and Jeff Snyder, director of electronic music. Forrest, who leads the Cooling and Heating for Architecturally Optimized Systems (CHAOS) lab, and Jeff, who directs PLOrk, created performances and installations that explore how the sense of heat and cold can interact with musical experiences. The project utilized temperature as a parameter, transforming thermal camera images into sound and employing robotic heaters built by CHAOS to control music rhythmically. This innovative concert demonstrated how thermal elements could add a new sensory dimension to musical compositions.
PLOrk: Thermal Music
