Kickstarter campaign Reifi turns music into an unique art piece. You can even make the 3D printed statues come to life on your smartphone.

When it comes to 3D printing, you find all sorts of innovation on crowdfunding platforms. Reifi, in example, converts songs to 3d printed statues – „totems“, as they call it.

Seach totem visually represens an artist’s song. The base covers roughly the size of a vinyl LP. What’s nice about it: Every totem has a different visual representation. Also, you can download a mobile app called “Stylus” (iOS only). When you point your smartphone camera on the 3d printed statues, they come to life. The phone plays the music and an interactive visual experience, which is also designed with the artist. Each totem experience is unique in style and content.

The 3D Printed Statues Look Great, But There‘s a Catch

If you back their Kickstarter campaign, you will get your totem 3D printed in PLA plastic. The limited editions are cast in bronze. They statues all have a different feel to it.

A totem costs $75. There are several stretch goals on Kickstarter, which can make the price go up to a whopping $1.250. If you can spare $10.000, you can even create a totem of your own music – but that’s not exactly priced for an aspiring musicians budget.

There’s a catch, though (and that’s why the Kickstarter campaign probably won’t reach it’s goal of $150.000). Currently, there’s a limited roster of artist to choose from. The artists who are early adopters are Health, Yacht, Mae and Tim Fain – you can find their songs on Spotify. So if you’re a fan of these musicians, it’s definitely worth a check.

How These 3D Printed Statues are Made

For those interested in the process of building the statue:

• When Reifi partners with an artists, they provide a range of visual interpretations of a specific song in the form of abstract 3D models.
• Using these models as a starting point, they work with the artist to design a totem that matches their creative intentions and visual aesthetic.
• Also, they design the interactive visual experience, which is played by the Smartphone.
• Once both are complete, Reifi 3D prints the totem and encode it with the experience using Unity and Vuforia.
• Fans who purchase the totem and download the Stylus app can play back the music and interactive visuals on their mobile device, experiencing the artist’s song through sound, sight and touch.