A speaker made by artist Dakd Jung, spotted by Gizmodo, visualizes music with ferrofluid, a liquid filled with small magnetic particles. The ferrofluid, a viscous black blob, reacts to an electromagnetic device and dances in sync with the sounds being played.
The video shows Jung’s process for assembling the loudspeaker: treating the glass container so that the ferrofluid does not stick, sanding the 3D printed housing and connecting the electromagnetic device. The full prototype in action is a little less enchanting than its first test shown in the video as the blob is falling apart, but Jung says the speaker is still in development. He has used ferrofluid in artwork before, including a huge ferrofluid panel and a ferrofluid ‘pond’.
Ferrofluid was originally developed by NASA to move fuel in rocket engines without the force of gravity. It didn’t work for that purpose, but it did manage to look cool and have other practical uses. It can be used for speaker dampers, as a lubricant in ball bearings or as a sealant in hard drives. One day it could even be used in biomedicine.
The liquid has previously been used to visualize music, as in the video below, but having it in a closed container is much more appealing as it is a very messy substance. Plus, having a lava lamp respond to your tunes is simply more fun than having a container of liquid cool next to your speaker system.