marcelo ertorteguy + sara valente + takahiro fukuda: room sized electric guitar

architect marcelo ertorteguy and sara valente collaborated with takahiro fukuda to create ‘cargoguitar‘, a room sized electric guitar. eight strings start from a vertical media column stretching eight meters to another horizontal media spine resulting in a hyperbolic paraboloid. each peg is tuned to a different note, achieving varied sound scales to be captured by the transducers. two amplifiers allow the vibrations to be felt in the room. a glow in the dark coat is applied to the strings, allowing visitors to not just hear the sound but to see it as it as well. the inhabitable instrument is on show at the kobe biennale 2011. 

see designboom’s previous article of marcelo ertorteguy and sara valente’s ‘stereotank’ here.  back view – black lights on

players

  detail of media spine with black light

detail of media spine

detail of hardware 

  completed spines

during construction

during construction 

plans, sections, and axonometric view 

CG_string by cargoguitar 

pitches by cargoguitar for more examples of sounds produced by the guitar, click here. designboom has received this project from our ‘DIY submissions’ feature, where we welcome our readers to submit their own work for publication.