Throughout the beginning of this course, I have been contemplating my personal aesthetic and how to define it, whether that be through style of dress, interior decoration, preferred media, etc. When polling my loved ones, the consensus was a blend of “earthy industrial” and “normcore,” perhaps typical of the Colorado region. According to the Buzzfeed quiz titled “You Might Know Your Outer Aesthetic, But What’s Your Inner Aesthetic?,” my internal aesthetic is “Cottagecore,” which I am not sure I agree with:

My Personal Aesthetic
Alas, I would also self-define my aesthetic under the “E-ndustrial” or “earthy industrial” umbrella, inspired by the following 20th Century design movements:
- Art Nouveau, which drew heavily from organic forms and colors of plants and flowers;
- Art Deco, which incorporated popular manufacturing materials and sleek, clean aesthetics;
- Biomorphic Surrealism, which paired organic shapes with dream-like images.
When googling “earthy industrial aesthetic and art,” some of the images that pop up (1,2,3):
Aesthetic Influences
Beyond these influences, my personal aesthetic has been influenced by many things. To start with, my ancestral home and upbringing, which took place in Sykesville, Maryland. As a small town with access to the coast, mountains, and miles of farmland in between, I appreciated the great outdoors from a young age. This appreciation was further underscored by five years of childhood prior to the Y2K technology boom, where I learned to entertain myself by playing drums, trail running and biking, beekeeping, fixing cars, and creating art in any ways that I could. As video games and small electronic devices became the norm, my hobbies grew to include the occasional movie and early Nintendo 64 video games like Zelda, Super Mario 64, and Pokémon. And a common thread found in these hobbies? The presence of natural forms and exploration.

Main Project Ideation
With these influences in mind, I do hope to branch out of my comfort zone for at least one aspect of my main project. For example, I could involve my woodworking skills during the fabrication process but resist the temptation to fall back on these skills to guide my idea generation. Despite still being in the brainstorming phase with the goal of at least 20 ideas to start with, I know that I would be overjoyed to involve my love for music and to strengthen a growing skill through my project. During a recent conversation with the Director of Composition at CU Boulder, Jeffrey Nytch, for my Advanced Product Design class, he mentioned how his brain synthesizes the “shape of music.” I thought this idea of substituting one sense for another (i.e. visualizing music rather than hearing music) was really intriguing. Looking into this topic briefly, I came across Martin Wattenberg’s The Shape of Song, a quest to see musical forms of different genres (4):

With that, one of my main project ideas is some sort of audio visualizer, either using sand or ferrofluid alongside some sort of speaker design. This would cause the material to move through the vibrations and frequencies of the music, bringing “the shape of music” to life. As I continue to lean into the brainstorming process over the next week, I look forward to seeing where this idea or others will take me! Stay tuned.
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I love how you found your personal aesthetic and your determination to find the perfect fit for your project rather than jump into your first idea. As for your first main idea I really enjoy it as not many people know sound creates patterns and having something that can change it’s own design would be awesome. The first thing that comes to mind for me is a glass coffee table with the sand under the glass. Do you have any ideas on how you would display it?
Hi Jack – thanks for your thoughts and I agree that vibration/cymatic science is super cool. I like your idea of the glass coffee table, especially having the sand displayed in a way that is also functional. My initial display ideas are a small desktop speaker, some sort of amp case, or messing with laser cymatics for a wall installation (that frames the laser show as music/sound is playing). None of those ideas are as functional as a table, so you’ve given me something to think about!
Your personal aesthetic is definitely earthy industrial. You wear a lot of natural tones and the woody water bottles you have seal the deal. Changing input out between two sense is an interesting consideration to start with. Have you though of expanding to feel music or hear materials? There’s endless possibilities regardless.
A small note regarding ferrofluids; they mainly respond to electrical fields, not too sure how vibrations would effect it.
Hi Jax – I’m glad we agree that my aesthetic is not cottagecore! I have thought about feeling music through vibrations, especially through some sort of wearable or blanket-type covering that someone could interact with. Hearing materials is a super interesting thought, I’d love to know more of what you mean by that or have seen done! It could also be fun to explore an electronic music maker, like a ‘drum glove’ or some other interactive way for the user to make their own sounds (as opposed to something that reacts to sound). This all makes me think of Imogen Heap’s Mi.Mu gloves from a few years ago! Thanks for the note on ferrofluids too, that matches what some people on the internet said about their ferrofluid speakers picking up ambient noise or reacting to way more than just music from the speaker.