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 The Final Flute

This is my prototype and model for how I built my flute. It is 5″ high and does work (though not well).

Note the inner bore (diameter) difference. A flute needs to be tapered in order to create the proper amount of back pressure.

The Flute In Numbers

20.12mm – 20.12mm – 253.9mm

24 grams

3.5 hours

$1.95

As excited as I have been to print my flute, one of my favorite moments came as I added it to the que the day before it was due to be printed.  The above numbers, which represent the dimensions, weight, time and cost of the print, speak to the ease and affordability of printing an instrument.  The numbers, especially the cost, were a mystery to me before, or rather, I never really sought to find out the exact cost of my object.  $1.95 (not including the $2199 price tag of the printer!) is all it costs for one flute.  An instrument that can shape peoples lives through art and expression.

My experience with the digital interface (mostly Tinkercad) was fairly good as far as the design aspect is concerned.  Designing the dimensions were straight forward, I used my model as well as certain ratios to decide where to place the holes, as well as determining their shape and angle.  Towards the end of the design, I realized that the inner diameter, or bore, of my flute was consistent all the way through.  The problem here is that the air would flow through at too quick a rate to make much sound.  As you can see in the above photo (prototype/model), the entire shape of the flute is tapered from the hole in which you blow, the embouchure hole, towards the open end at the bottom.  This allows for more air to come through the holes above, making for greater playability when fingering notes.  I had to make several versions of flute ends as well as elongated cones to make the bore taper to a smaller output.

As of now, I have yet to combine the pieces, or blow into it for that matter.  I’m waiting to have it glued and completed before giving it a first go.  I’m hopeful. . .

Here’s a collection of found images and one of my own in a Photoshop collage. The flute at the center is an image of my prototype that I printed in week seven.

How can you use a computer to print an instrument that can create something artistic, healing, beautiful, audible?

The Flautist

Mike Rafferty, a traditional Irish flute player (1926-1011)

The Muse

The Irish flute, as we know it, was really a product of the latter half of the 19th century.

The Model

My first test print was not designed by myself, but by user PFH through Thingiverse. His model is roughly 12″ tall and pitched in the key of D.

The Build

My full sized flute as of week seven (orange). The final step will be placing the holes at appropriate intervals. This will allow the sound of the flute to be pitch accurate and playable.  A current problem I’m working out is hole size and angle.  If you look closely at the grey model, you’ll see that each hole is a specific shape, size and angle that contribute to the resonance of the instrument.

The First Print

This is a photo of my test flute successful being printed on a Makerbot Replicator 2.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Cooper Stoulil

Printing the Song of Apollo

Creation is beautiful.  A blanket statement that I would argue timeless, or not of time at all.  So how then can you use a computer to print an instrument that can create something artistic, healing, beautiful, audible?

Music is healing, notably enough so that the field of music therapy has arisen in the last 100 years, tracing its origins to theories from Plato and Aristotle.  When looking at depression, studies have shown that playing and hearing music has a direct correlation with ones treatment and recovery.  A group published in The British Journal of Psychiatry 2011 conducted a study on individual music therapy for depression and showed how musical creation can improve the well-being of somebody suffering from depression or anxiety.  “Clients sometimes described their playing experience as cathartic, and this may have led to corrective emotional experiences in further processing. A rather unique property of music therapy is the fact that it includes the opportunity to be active and this seems to be a meaningful dimension for dealing with issues associated with depression” (Erkkilä 137).  In essence, by giving an instrument to someone dealing with these problems, you are giving them the ability to heal themselves.  Not in the way that medication would, where taking pills attacks the problem as a chemical imbalance, but through a much deeper and profound means to the individual, especially since the initial trauma is often emotional in nature.  “Playing music with others is just one way of finding happiness. The relationship between the musician and the instrument itself can also blossom into a loving one” (Döpp 10).  Hans-Jürgen Döpp is a former professor of psychoanalytical interpretation and history of erotic art at Johann Wolfgang Goethe University in Frankfurt.  He has published over 18 books dealing with sexuality in culture and art.

Art as both an aesthetic and sound are constantly being reinvented.  Suzi Gablik, in her article The Nature of Beauty in Contemporary Art, pitches her views of what it means to be an artist in the modern day and how to live a more artful life.  Suzi, like many contemporary visionaries, feels that in the past few decades, a greater shift towards ‘soullessness’ has occurred in art.  “… in responding compassionately to whatever it [art] touches, it is helping to create a more beautiful world.  Artists whose work helps to heal our soulless attitudes toward the physical world have my full respect and attention because, for me, beauty is an activity rather than an entity, a consciousness of, and reverence for, the beauty of the world” (Gablik 4).  Suzi Gablik is the author of The Re-enchantment of Art and Has Modernism Failed?  Believing that art’s commitment to social change died in the 80’s.  She is a visual artist and professor of art history.  Imagine a world where accessibility to a musical instrument, or a tool to create art, was only a push of a button away.  Such access would empower anyone looking to explore self-expression and perhaps even sharing beyond that.

So what is sound?  A vibration, or the vibration that moves through things.  “Scientists say that sound requires a medium through which to travel. Here the word medium has nothing to do with middle, average, or psychics, but rather refers to some kind of substance, such as air, wood, or water” (Robertson 29).  In short, sound, being a wave, moves things.  For that reason alone it is my favorite practice of art.  To be exposed to the vibrations someone else has crafted and feel their intentions just as you would observe the brush stroke of a Monet.  Music is not only about listening, it is about feeling.  Even the act of listening, given anatomy, is the feeling of vibrations.  That is the kind of power I wish to see in the hands of humanity.   What more beautiful a tool than one we can feel and experience together as both an output and an input.  Robertson is the author of the Stop Faking it! series, designed to be accessible explanations of various types of physics.

In Stockholm, RickardDahlstrand is using 3D printers to produce music while printing.  The focus is in the sound, not the product, and he’s managed to produce songs such as Mozart’s Serenade No.3 and Rossini’s William Tell Overture, as well a few other recognized classics.  I love the approach of making the printer become the instrument while using printing as a bi-product.  The event was published through a website called arthackday.net.  “Art Hack Day ‘Hackers as Artists’ is dedicated to cracking open the process of art-making, with special reverence toward open-source technologies.”  In essence, using technology in a ‘hacked,’ or unintentional way to create.

Music is equally as cultural as it is cross cultured.  Historically, everything can be drawn back to early percussion in the Rift valley.  How fascinating a world we live in now that what once was separated by cultures, history and geography is now finding its way into iterations and culminations at the artists command.  This is an exciting time for music and how able through technology people can share ideas and creations.  Technology are the veins of distribution in which empower us to share, therefore, 3D printing is yet another facet lending itself to ease of creativity through the personal ability to download an instrument.  An instrument that can heal, which is exponentially more safe and potent than many therapeutic alternatives such as medication.  Through vibrations, we are connecting with something beautiful in an attempt to save our definition of art.  It should come as no surprise the immediacy to continue making our world a more beautiful place.     “Art, religion and knowledge are all conditions of Apollo [truth/healing], in which Dionysian [sensual/emotional] reality is defended against and channelled at the same time. We should approach the monstrous in life with the help of art – preferably music. This is what a summary of the book of tragedy could sound like” (Döpp 89).  I have no doubt that if someone held a flute that had just been printed, their life would be impacted for the better in a lasting way.

Printing tools to make art: Can instruments built using additive manufacturing have place and meaning alongside their wood and metal counterparts? 

3D printing, though new on the block, has so many potential uses, but perhaps what interests me most is creating the tools to create art and in this case, music.  I’m fascinated by the concept.  While most previous methods for creating an instrument require the removal of material from an object to reach a finished product,  additive manufacturing is practically waste free, printing only what you design.

I’m interested in printing an Irish flute.  I chose this because of its simplicity, small size and relative ease of play.  The greatest challenge will be in tuning, which ideally would be in the key of D.  After speaking with Arlen though, I’m now considering alternatives, such as just intonation, following an algorithm or even random hole spacing.

Beyond a specific instrument, the practicality of printing any instrument would be huge.  Though I have little to no experience with the Irish flute, I find it fits best then my goal of using 3D printed instruments for educational purposes.  This is a cheep and quick way of producing a gateway to a new art for many people, especially in a classroom setting where budget and supply may be short.

Being able to print an instrument allows for faster prototyping that doesn’t require the time and tools that say wood working does, nor the expertise of a practiced luthier.  In addition, any tinkerer would have the ability to fully customize any piece they wish to print.  Making the instrument suit his or her needs specifically, whether that be in pitch, color, shape, size or tamber.  Arvid Jense states that, ‘While all of these things are cool, they’re all replications of existing traditional instruments, and aren’t touching the new geometrical and structural possibilities of 3d printing. (Though, this quite mirrors early electronic instruments, which were mostly trying to emulate existing instruments in sound).’  He implies that the real ingenuity of this technology will come with experimenting with new and unfamiliar designs, something that that is already being explored on Thingaverse.

Olaf Diegel, a professor at Lund University in Sweden, recently created what he calls the world’s first live concert with a ’3D printed band.’  He has designed and printed electric and bass guitars, keyboard housing and even a drum kit (all of which are for sale, none of which are affordable).  In a video featured on digitaltrends.com, you see his students playing the track ‘Relax’ by Frankie Goes To Hollywood on printed instruments (Mugatu’s brainwash theme from the film Zoolander).  Diegel’s instruments are under the brand name Odd and you can find them for sale at www.odd.org.nz.

‘No two instruments sound exactly alike, and players frequently have widely differing opinions about what constitutes a good sound. There are many factors which contribute to the sound of any given traverso, among which are embouchure size and shape, interior dimensions of the bore, and type of material from which the instrument is made’ (Solum, 67). John Solum, in his book The Early Flute, outlines what goes into making a flute, what the factors involved are and why they’re important to the finished product’s sound.  I wonder about these effects with PLA.  Since the instrument is less dense and softer (in regards to the overall material strength), how will a printed flute sound in comparison to one made of wood?

It’s most important to students and people looking to experiment with new instruments.  Students, because they could in theory have access to a 3D printed instrument for very cheep and be able to learn the basic techniques.  Take a 3rd grade music class for example, if the school wanted to try teaching the recorder, but didn’t have the funds, they could order a batch of 3D printed models for much cheaper.

Printing instruments empowers people that want to explore sound.  With prototyping taking a matter of hours, instead of months with traditional practices, musicians and students can create, test and perfect any idea they choose to design.  I don’t believe that such technology will find it’s way into concert halls anytime soon, but for the curious musician of the future, this world of 3D printing opens many doors.

• John Solum. The Early Flute. New York: Oxford University Press, 1995.

• “Shands_2010_HowToBuildASimpleNorthAmericanStyleFlute_2010_03_01.pdf.” Accessed October 20, 2014. http://www.flutopedia.com/refs/Shands_2010_HowToBuildASimpleNorthAmericanStyleFlute_2010_03_01.pdf.

• Tretbar, Alex. “Take a Listen to the First Ever Concert Using Only 3D-Printed Instruments.” Digital Trends. Accessed October 20, 2014. http://www.digitaltrends.com/music/students-hold-first-concert-with-only-3d-printed-instruments/.