The VOC-25 Is a Toothy Vocal Synthesizer That Is Equal Parts Terrifying and Intriguing

Love Hultén detoured into the world of strange art with this project, which is a vocal synthesizer made of up 25 sets of plastic teeth.

Cameron Coward
3 years agoArt / Music / Displays

Art is often mysterious and bewildering, and I’m not going to pretend that I truly understand it. But I can appreciate the novelty of art that is distinctly unsettling. That could be a Dali painting or a doll’s head glued to a dead crab; it doesn’t matter, so long as it makes me say “huh, that’s weird.” Love Hultén is a Swedish audiovisual artist and craftsmen who has built a number of aesthetically-pleasing technological contraptions over the years. But he has taken a detour into the world of strange art with his most recent project, which is a vocal synthesizer made of up 25 sets of plastic teeth.

VOC-25 is equal parts terrifying and intriguing. It does channel Hultén’s trademark minimalist Scandinavian design style, but those plastic chompers give the build an unmistakable air of wrongness. It is simultaneously a functional musical instrument and the kind of art piece that would be at home in a museum of curiosities and oddities. Pressing a key on the small piano-style keyboard causes the corresponding set of teeth to open up and sing a synthesized musical note. Chords and notes can be played just like they could on any other synthesizer in order to create melodies. It is best suited for the kinds of haunting tunes that you’d expect to hear in a Tim Burton film or a David Lynch TV show.

Hultén admits that VOC-25 was inspired by Simone Giertz’s bizarre dental instrument that we featured a few months ago. The enclosure is all clean lines in a pedestal-like form that is painted a pastel pink. It looks a bit like a vintage TV with its pivoting mount. The synthesizer is based on the Axoloti Core and plays vocal audio samples, with built-in reverb and delay effects. Each set of teeth is hinged and actuated individually by an electromagnetic solenoid. Sound is played either through the built-in speakers or through a mono audio output. A really nifty circular monitor on the base of the machine displays the current waveform in a very pleasing way. I have no clue what Hultén plans to do with this sinister synthesizer. I can only assume that it will be used in some sort creepy performance art that I won’t understand, but will find captivating nonetheless.

Cameron Coward
Writer for Hackster News. Proud husband and dog dad. Maker and serial hobbyist.
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