The Auracle & Overtone Crown

The Auracle and Overtone Crown offer an opportunity for contemplation and visualization within a musical context. The viewer/listener wears the Overtone Crown (a wearable tuning fork instrument) while the forks are played with a bow by a performer. This creates a stereophonic field of shimmering overtones around the listener’s head. The listener is in the center of the musical experience, connected to the instrument. The Auracle is a life-size drawing that functions as a visualization of the sonic experience, and a mirror for the viewer/listener.

The Auracle by Shawn Feeney

The Auracle

Graphite and Conté charcoal on watercolor board, 30 x 40″, 2015
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The Overtone Crown by Shawn Feeney

The Overtone Crown

Modified bicycle helmet, tuning forks, polymer clay, epoxy, paint, 2015


In this example, the Overtone Crown uses an octave’s worth of Biosonics tuning forks (C-D-E-F-G-A-B-C) in Pythagorean tuning. When bowed, the third harmonic of each fork resonates most strongly, so it sounds as a G major scale. The forks can easily be switched out for different scales and tunings.

Overtone-Crown-Auracle-Robbie-Sweeny

Playing the Overtone Crown at the de Young Museum, San Francisco, CA. Photo by Robbie Sweeny.