Story: A machine that creates not only art, but a totally new art form.

Context: To celebrate the Museum of Glass’ 10th anniversary, we threw an event showcasing glass in a new way. Instead of displaying glass formed into art, we displayed the destruction of glass as an art form.

Concept: The Shatter Sessions: a concert where bands and audience members shatter glass with sound waves.

Innovation: Shatter Boxes, sonic chambers where people could attempt to shatter wine glasses by manipulating the sound waves. A larger Shatter Box was on stage hooked up to the bands instruments, where, during each set they would try and ramp up their music and shatter glass.

Goal: Spark a new generations’ imagination about glass art, and get them to the Museum. Along the way find a compelling method to open people to the appreciation of glass art. Little did we know how complicated that concept would be to create.

Shatter Boxes create a new artistic interpretation of glass art, combining multiple art forms into a single live performance experience. It’s 100% original. We actually first set out to purchase this device, but after a two-week search (including M.I.T.!) no one had ever heard of a device like this.

We learned, it’s not just about volume. We discovered that glass only breaks at a very narrow pitch, frequency, and decibel level. These things are unique to each glass. Notably, incredibly fine crystal (German made, actually) had a very consistent grain that broke at a 110 decibels and specific pitch/frequency. But it cost 25 dollars a glass. Out of our budget.

To use less predictable glass, we had to be able to fine-tune the soundwaves per glass. With a prototype, this took 20 minutes of experimentation to finally break: too long for a live show.

Next we figured out it if you “flick” the glass, it will ring at the unique frequency that breaks it. With an iPhone guitar tuner we could record that info, then use a dial to fine tune the soundwaves, ensuring a shatter. It took most people just 60 second to get it right. It was ready for live bands to try after that.

The Shatter Boxes were created purely for consumer engagement, to help open people up to an art form they would normally never consider.

This was part of an integrated effort, involving print, film, digital and PR. It was essential to have a progressive, rebellious context for glass art, to allow people to see it in a new light. It creates an educational medium the museum still uses. It’s incredibly user friendly, requiring only a knob to operate, and intentionally looks rough and DIY to encourage an experimental tone and level of engagement.

The expectation is that it would greatly increase addendance. It upped the museum traffic and ticket sales by 4x as compared to the same time period in the previous year.