Interactive exploration of a hierarchical spider web structure with sound

Abstract

3D spider webs exhibit highly intricate fiber architectures and owe their outstanding performance to a hierarchical organization that spans orders of magnitude in length scale from the molecular silk protein, to micrometer-sized fibers, and up to cm-scale web. Similarly, but in a completely different physical manifestation, music has a hierarchical structure composed of elementary sine wave building blocks that can be combined with other waveforms to create complex timbres, which are then arranged within larger-scale musical compositions. Although apparently different, spider webs and music have many similarities, as we point out in this work. Here, we propose an intuitive and interactive way to explore and visualize a 3D Cyrtophora citricola spider web geometry that has been digitally modeled with micron-scale details from full-scale laboratory experiments. We use model-based sonification to translate the web architecture into sound, allowing for aural perception and interpretation of its essential topological features. We implement this sonification using Unity3D and Max/MSP to create an interactive spider web environment in which a user travels through a virtual spider web. Each silk fiber in their field of view is sonified using different sine waves. Together, the sonified fibers create new and more complex timbres that reflects the architecture of 3D spider webs. These concepts are implemented into a spider web-based instrument for live performances, art installations and data exploration. It provides an unprecedented and creative way to immerse the composer, audience and user in an immersive multimedia experience generated by the complexity of a 3D spider web.