3D-printed music from Rickard Dahlstrand on Vimeo.

Like waveforms or psychedelic iTunes visualisations frozen in plastic, Rickard Dahlstrand’s 3D music prints are abstract sound made visible. Tunes emanate from the calculated whirring of motors at different speeds during the printing process: vectors are drawn to anticipate the tone the printer will make for each line. Frenetic music results in sculptures full of short, jagged lines, while slower pieces result in longer, more sparse shapes.

It is only during the process of printing that they can be heard. But unlike with records, where the plastic object itself is replayed, here the vector is replayed, with each play leaving behind with a tangible object whose meaning is nonetheless opaque on its own. It cannot be replayed. And although, the object only a byproduct of its production, its generative immaterial to material relationship is a compelling subversion of all previous music mediums.

Judging by both the inventive Hummingbird music notation system andThe Museum of Moving Image’s Sonos Playground we looked at on the feed last month, it seems that there has recently been un uptick in designers re-imagining the ways we visualise sound.