Maxwell Shoroye

Maxwell Shoroye is a product designer and a sound enthusiast from Ireland.

He uses his experience in DJing to mix, distort and blend sounds to create a new way of design thinking.

Maxwell develops ways in which to depict invisible sound that surrounds us utilising computational processes. By using sound as a means to create different landscapes, Maxwell highlights the importance of sound in everyday culture and society. Employing sound & music as a passport to explore different eras, emotions and worlds, Maxwell investigates his Nigerian heritage through his work, uncovering unsung pioneers of Afro-psychedelic Rock, developing social exchanges between music and fashion.

“Design decorates space and sound decorates time”.

Growing up, music and sound have always being a present element for me.

Design is a way of decorating space, sound and music is a way of decorating time. A DJ and a fashion designer are similar, in both of their practices they have the ability to sample, mix, mesh, distort, reference, innovate.

My DJ equipment is the same as an atelier, like the flight controls in a cockpit - the endless buttons in a spaceship.

The aim is to orchestrate a harmonious conversation with the instruments life has gifted me. Creating emotive depictions of sound through the lens of design and fashion. The translation is integral and essential to the process.

Nigerian Psychedelic Rock (60s)

Looking deeper into what inspired and shaped my taste in music. Diving into archival images from the late 60s in Nigeria and Africa. Collected images from family and friends back home in Nigeria.

Launch Project

Sound Exploration [001] — Translating the sound frequency of the surrounding environment to displace the geometry of the figure standing in front of the camera

Launch Project

Sound Exploration [002] — Translating the sound frequency of the surrounding environment to displace the geometry of the figure standing in front of the camera

Xbox Kinect Camera - Sound Visualisation Experiment

Launch Project

Xbox Kinect Camera - Sound Visualisation Experiment

Coding the Xbox-Kinect depth sensor to capture live motion date and translate the sounds of the surrounding environment on the subject

Coding Music Process sound experiment Sound visualization

Launch Project

Sound is colour [001] — Using computational GPU processes to visualise a symphony of sampled sounds put together to elevate the soul. Rendering emotions in new ways using the key element, sound.

Launch Project

Sound is colour [002] — Transforming audio of Nigerian Psychedelic Rock music from the late 60s into equations that renders visuals.

Sound Exploration Stills [001] — Collection of stills from different sound visuals of Nigerian Psychedelic Rock. Developing computational shader parameters that evoke interesting renderings of different songs

Sound Exploration Stills [002] — Collection of stills from different sound visuals of Nigerian Psychedelic Rock. Developing computational shader parameters that evoke interesting renderings of different songs

GPU hardware-accelerated music visualisation, using DirectX and intelligent beat detection to render iterated images which blend seamlessly.

Creating different visualisations for each song or audio every time the program is run.

In contrast to other forms of music visualisation (such as VDJ or a laser lighting display) which always show the same visualisation. The visualisation is dependant on the characteristic of the song or audio and the coding of the shader presets.

Coding Music sound experiment Sound visualization

'At Peace' — Driving metaball simulations in blender to visualise the sound input. The artistic DNA of this artwork is created through sound

Launch Project

'Flow' — Utilising the hair particle simulation in Blender to visualise the sound input capturing the feeling of a present force that is generated by sound frequencies.

Launch Project

'In the Moment' — Meatballs driven around the floating avatars using a sampled loop from Erika de Casier - The flow [Video in URL]

Launch Project

AR Sound Simulation — Visualising live sound from my kitchen using AR technology. [Video in URL]

Launch Project

Sound Sculpture — Manipulating the frequencies of a track to create displacement on a spherical object. Each frequency range displaces a unique form. A new language of discovering form and interpreting sound. [Video in URL]

Using the 3D softwares to visualise sounds and songs, mostly Nigerian psychedelic Rock from the late 60s. Developing a new visual language, a sound-visual language discovering form and interpreting sound. Where sound is the brushstrokes for the artwork.

Sound Textures — Exploring how sound can be translated to generate different texture or shape on the surface of a 3d garment. Manipulating the vertices of the garment by sound frequencies of song

Sculptural Sound — Displacing geometry using sound frequencies. Sculptural sound design, sound shaping our fashion and forms

Sound Material Development — Pairing the sound visuals created from Nigerian/African rock bands from the 60s with elements of the album cover, to imagine a prints developed by songs from the band. Representing the band in a different context using the sound of the band as the pencil to draw new concepts.

Sound Material Development

Collaboration with Lucy Barlow (Milliner)

Launch Project

Collaboration with Lucy Barlow (Milliner) — Working with Lucy Barlow to re-imagine the shape of different hats from references of Nigerian Rock bands in the late 60s. Using this as the starting point to generate new forms by displacing the geometry of the hat using the sound frequencies of songs of the bands that wore the hats in the reference photos.

Launch Project

Collaboration with Lucy Barlow (Milliner) — Different parameters allowed us to displace new shapes and explore new forms using the shape of the hats.

CNC Development — CNC model of the sound displaced hat completed at RCA workshop.

Hat model created by sound frequencies

Digital Nigerian Rock Band

Collaboration with Seye Adelekan (Gorillaz guitarist) — Collaborating with Seye presented the opportunity to a produce a Future Afro Rock musical composition referencing the tone and energy of Nigerian Rock in the late 60s Referencing the album covers and editorial shoots of the afro-psychedelic rock band from the late 60s. Research and development into past and present black influences, black artists and music and black culture in order to create persona's for the 3D characters.

Sketches and Concepts of the band characters

Art Direction for the character styling

3D Clothing Design Process

Dressed by sound — Sound visualisation stills used as prints for the pant and the sculptural hat form is created by sound displacement generated using Nigerian psychedelic rock as the input.

In The Presence

Launch Project

Fire & Desire - Ase — Future Afro-Rock production for Nigerian Digital Rock Group 'ASE' by Seye Adelekan Visualisation by Maxwell Shoroye

Development of digital Nigerian rock band - applying innovative tools to create a social and sound exchange. Representing Afro-psychedelic rock from the late 60s in a contemporary fashion.

Artistic Production Augmented Reality Character design Digital imagery Sound Art

Maxwell Shoroye

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Royal College of Art