Thermal Music: Exploring Sensation of Temperature as a Performance Parameter

Thermal Music is a project to explore the possibilities of coordinating control of temperature sensation with control of sound and light. Unlike convective heating technologies that change the temperature of the air around us, radiative heating works by directly heating the surface of our skin via infrared. The technology is widely used in portable heaters in outdoor dining areas of restaurants. One interesting advantage of radiative heating is that if the source of infrared radiation is shaded by a thermally reflective surface, the change in perceived temperature by a person near the heater is very rapid. We worked to create a system that could quickly control robotic shades in front of a radiative heater to synchronize changes in perceived temperature with music and light. We also explored the inverse, using thermal camera input as a control method for audio, and presented both of these techniques at a “Thermal Music” concert at Princeton University in October of 2023.