The sound produced is characterised by the material properties of bamboo. The bamboo structure itself is vibrated to reproduce the sound of the violin, using exciter technology that turns surfaces and materials into sound sources-replacing the concept of traditional speakers. Oppo London Design Centre's research and development centre embedded technology within the structure-including new haptic motors, solid-state speaker strips, and exciters-to produce an immersive base and higher frequencies which reverberate the bamboo with Violin's vibrato and the effect of a percussion instrument.
The 2021 installation fuses Kuma's structural design with technology and classical music to evolve the rings into a musical instrument. It was in this installation, ‘Bamboo (竹) Ring: Weaving into Lightness’, that Kuma first explored weaving together bamboo and carbon fibre to create a strong, earthquake-resistant material that reflected design principles also applied to the Japan National Stadium for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games. It is an evolution of a 2019 installation that Kuma and Oppo collaborated on for London Design Festival.
