Dozens of miniature loudspeakers turn the crown into a distributed acoustic surface.
Wearable sound sculpture · 2011
Mind Taipei
A black hat transformed into a wearable acoustic surface through an array of miniature loudspeakers, developed during a 2011 residency at Taipei Artist Village.
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Project typeArtwork · Sculpture
ThemesParticipation & co-design · Speculative & critical design
FormWearable sound sculpture
Developed2011
MaterialsHat · miniature loudspeakers · audio circuit
ContextTaipei Artist Village residency · 4 May–20 June 2011
01 · Proposition
The head becomes an acoustic surface
Mind Taipei concentrates a field of miniature loudspeakers onto a familiar black hat, relocating sound from a fixed room-scale system to an object worn around the head.
Ricardo O’Nascimento developed the work during his residency at Taipei Artist Village, alongside Pinyin. The surviving object and archive photographs show dozens of small loudspeakers distributed across the hat’s crown, turning the accessory into a dense sculptural array.
The technical archive also retains an amplifier connection diagram and an original 2011 video study. No surviving standalone project statement or sensor description has been located, so this record documents the verified form, materials and residency context without reconstructing an unconfirmed interaction.
Video documentation
View the object in the round
02 · Experience
Assemble, distribute, situate
- 01
Assemble
A black hat provides the wearable base for the sound object.
- 02
Distribute
Miniature loudspeakers are arranged across the crown, forming a dense acoustic and visual field.
- 03
Situate
The completed object moves between the body and the plinth, remaining legible as both accessory and sound sculpture.
03 · Reflection
A wearable object becomes a field of sound
Mind Taipei shifts the loudspeaker from an external fixture to a repeated material distributed around the wearer’s head.
The surviving documentation does not establish a specific sensor-triggered interaction, and this page does not invent one. What the archive makes visible is a compact spatial proposition: many small speakers replace a single frontal source, wrapping the apparatus of playback around the body. The hat remains recognisable while its surface is overtaken by components, holding fashion, sculpture and sound technology in deliberate tension.
The work can be encountered as a worn accessory and as a sculptural object on display.
Developed at Taipei Artist Village between 4 May and 20 June 2011, alongside Pinyin.
Credits & archive
Project record
- Concept and development
- Ricardo O’Nascimento / POPKALAB
- Residency host
- Taipei Artist Village
