We had the distinct pleasure to interview award winning designer Stefano Ivan Scarascia about their original and creative Speaker Orchestra design work. Stefano Ivan Scarascia is an award-winning industrial designer, that makes our world a better place with their original speaker orchestra works.
Stefano Ivan Scarascia ("SIS") answered Design Interview ("DI") questions about their award-winning work Sestetto Speaker Orchestra. Interview questions prepared by Frank Scott.
SIS : The main aim of Sestetto was to allow the self-production of the listening experience of recorded music. The mixing of tracks and parts back to be physically in the place of listening, like in a real concert. In this way you can better distinguish the single voices and instruments that are usually merged in the common stereo premix offered by the traditional recorded music and audio players.
SIS : The main focus has been designing something able to be completely self-prototyped, while maintaining a proper aesthetic quality.
SIS : The first plan for Sestetto is to find music producers and distribution partners that believe in this next approach of the musical fruition, for its scale developments or just for interesting public and experimental performances. Smaller spin-off projects could follow it.
SIS : The development of Sestetto - from its preliminary research and concept to the first prototypation - took around four months full time.
SIS : Sestetto has been freely developed, in the context of the “Autoproduzioni" self-production Final Synthesis Design Course held by teacher Stefano Maffei at the MA Degree of Product Design for Innovation in the Politecnico di Milano.
SIS : At the moment one self-produced prototype performs as an unique piece of art installation. It also could be considered for Sestetto to be in the future sold/licensed to a worthy company.
SIS : The new technologies and systems were now ready for allowing the subverting of the usual constrictions of art fruition and distribution as like as the premixed recorded music.
SIS : Sestetto is mainly designed for Hi-End audio lovers, music passionates. It’s also designed to perform in theaters, schools and music venues.
SIS : In the past, there have been developed several other multichannel systems, but none of them was designed to reproduce the individual instruments in dedicated speakers. Far from the usual spatial surround applications of the past systems, the console of sestetto is designed for this particular musical use, equipped with the experimental speakers made of different materials and technologies dedicated to the specified recorded instrument.
SIS : Sestetto is the italian word used to mean an orchestral ensemble of six musicians, like its six independent musical speakers.
SIS : The shiny ceramic horns of the ceramic speakers have been realized by Ceramiche Milesi artisanal workshop, well following the original drawings.
SIS : First of all, the digital technologies allowed sestetto to play six separate channels at the same time, with a D/A converter before the amplifier, the vibration speakers make the wood resonating in the wooden speakers. Talking about production, except of some digital fabrication technologies such the lasercut of the wood details, the rest of the production has been completely traditional and analog, from the wood manufacturings to the concrete moulding.
SIS : Although at the moment there’s only one physical prototype of Sestetto, it’s been shown in several exhibitions and performances with success. It attracted design magazines and recently a proposal for a big international exhibition. The time was so ready for trying an international design competition.
SIS : The main teaching of Sestetto has been to follow all of the product development process, from its concept to the self-production of a working prototype. Working now with companies and factories, it’s so useful to know the production issues thank to a little but complete experience like this.
