aric snee’s design experiment uses apples as an amplifier

throughout history, humans have found a multitude of uses for apples — from baking them into delicious pies to generating mild electrical currents. artist aric snee has found yet another use for the fruit in his latest design experiment, the ‘apple amplifier’. the design was an entry for the recent  hirosaki apple competition organized by designboom, in collaboration with hirosaki design week and japan design week.

blown glass, granny smith apple, iPhone4
all images © ann cady

snee‘s ‘apple amplifier’ is a design experiment that attempts to combat designed obsolescence. one can amplify any device by selecting the right fruit or vegetable, in this case an apple, and combining it with a hand-blow glass horn. the designer simply cuts a rectangular shaft deep enough to fit a device and carves out a circular hole perpendicular to the shaft where the glass horn amplifies the sound. 

blown glass, granny smith, gala, honeycrisp apples, iphone 4, 6,7

prototyping during a residency at the royal danish academy, school of design

project info:

design concept and video direction: aric snee
video production: brad patocka
music: dexter britain, used under creative commons
photo credit: ann cady

designboom has received this project from our ‘DIY submissions‘ feature, where we welcome our readers to submit their own work for publication. see more project submissions from our readers here.