'Music for PlayStation' uses vibrations to play music to the hard of hearing

A new project has been created which plays music through the vibrations of a PlayStation Dualsense controller.

Created by Jesse Austin-Stewart, ‘Music For PlayStation’ contains five separate tracks, each with different rhythms and tempos running through the controllers.

To feel them, a “listener” has to plug in their controller into a computer and press play on the audio. The controller will then automatically vibrate, with the rhythm of each song forming the track.

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It means that people who are hard of hearing, or deaf, can experience music in the same way as people who have full hearing.

The tracks, which were written and developed with a number of deaf artists, are available on all streaming sites, and can also be downloaded on Austin-Stewart’s Bandcamp.

In a video explaining the project, Austin-Stewart said: “Feel the way that the rhythms move from left to right and the way the changing patters feel against your palms.

“These tracks can only be felt, not heard,” he continued.

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Jesse Austin-Steward is a composer and sound artist based in Te Whanganui-a-Tara Wellington, Aotearoa, New Zealand. His work focuses on increasing accessibility for people with disabilities.

He is currently working on a PhD at Massey University, exploring barriers of capital to spatial audio, and is a 2022 Arts Foundation Te Tumu Toi Springboard award winner. His music as a producer and songwriter has had over 1,000,000 streams worldwide.

Earlier this year, organisation Deaf Rave ran a series of DJ workshops in London, teaching people of the deaf community to mix.

Full tracklist for ‘Music for PlayStation below:

'Choppy Waves'

'Pulse'

'Table Tennis'

'Phase'

'What?'

Isaac Muk is Mixmag's Digital Intern, follow him on Twitter