Synodia
A slow, portable music player that plays one song for about a day, shared only with the friends you are synced to.
- No.
- 04
- Year
- 2024
- Medium
- Concept device
- Role
- Designer, individual project
- Where
- Concept-Driven Interaction Design, Chalmers University of Technology
- Status
- Prototype
- What it is
- A portable player that plays one song for about a day, sent by a friend in your loop, with a printed receipt instead of a screen.
- What I tested
- The loop, played by hand with three friends over three listening intervals.
The problem
Streaming made music endless and frictionless, and easy to skip past without really listening. I wanted to see if a player could feel different from endless streaming. Synodia plays one song for about a day, and a friend in your loop chose it, with no recommendation algorithm involved. The name is Greek, from syn (together) and odos (the way), a music journey in company.
- Synodia isslow
It can only play one song for about a day, a slower, more intentional way to listen.
- Synodia iscollective
Songs come from your synced friends and no algorithm, which brings back the personal side of sharing music.
- Synodia istouch
You feel the music through things you turn and press, which the smartphone lost.
- Synodia ismemorable
One song at a time, without distractions, so it stays with you instead of joining the endless line of skips.
What I did
How it works
It works in four moves. You sync your devices with a few friends by cabling them into a loop. During the day, when a song catches you, you press record. At the end of the listening interval everyone receives a song from someone in the loop, with a small printed receipt instead of a screen: the cover, the song, the artist and the day it arrived. Then you listen.
1 · Loop. Friends sync their Synodias into a loop with cables and the SYNC IN and OUT ports. When every disc shines green, the loop is made.
2 · Record. During the day, when a song catches you, you press the orange record button. Each friend records in different places, at different times.
3 · Receive. At the end of the listening interval every Synodia receives a song at the same time, sent to another friend at random, and a small receipt rolls out.
4 · Listen. You listen to the song you got, rotating the disc to rewind. In the same interval you can record a new one for the next.
Each listening interval is 20 or 28 hours, chosen at random, so the songs drift in and out of the 24-hour day. That drift comes from slow technology, the 18-hour cycle of Slow Game (Odom et al., 2019): short enough to keep you engaged, long enough to sit with the song.
- 17:00Loop!The loop is made, and the first interval is chosen: 28 hours.
- 21:00First song received28 hours later, at 9 pm. The next interval: 28 hours.
- 1:00Second song received28 hours later, at 1 am. The next interval: 20 hours.
- 21:00Third song received20 hours later, at 9 pm again.
The object
The form leans on Dieter Rams’s work for Braun (“less, but better”) and on Teenage Engineering’s physical controls. Everything a screen would do is a part you touch: a disc to turn, a spark wheel to start a song, a record button, a volume knob and two sync jacks.
The body is aluminium: recyclable, light enough to carry, cheaper than other metals, which keeps the device affordable, and easy to machine into its shape. The lettering on the device, the box and the identity uses the typeface of most Swedish road signs.
συνοδίασύνwith, togetherὁδόςway, roadᾠδήsong, ode
How I got there
I started with research, from my own listening. Why do people still keep turntables and cassette players when one streaming subscription offers everything? I wrote down where I stand: tired of screens, against the “tiktokification” of listening and its suggestion algorithms, and for things that are accessible and shared. The goal was users to listeners. Two slow players I admired, OLO radio and Olly, both still need a streaming service and your listening history, and I wanted to move away from that.
The concept changed early. My first idea was an algorithm that would evolve the taste of a looped group of friends. The reading on music recommendation is why I moved away from it: people tire of recommendation algorithms and trust songs from friends more (Lee et al., 2019). So the friends became the recommendation, and four qualities held the concept together: slow, collective, touch and memorable.
Then I iterated, one method after another, from gestures to the final form.
Interaction relabelling (Djajadiningrat et al., 2000): I sketched how I handle my favourite things, a lighter, a zip, a tap, a match, to borrow their gestures for playing music.
The first ideas were slow home devices after Braun's RT 20 and LE 1. A modified LE 1 would turn to show listening, playing or receiving.
I kept sketching home devices until the question "portable?" turned up on the page.
The first 3D sketch. Drawing its other side showed how hard it would be to use left-handed, so a mirrored version followed.
Rough forms carved by hand, to feel how it sits in the palm. One of them felt right.
Peer ideation: syncing became a loop of cables, and after class discussions the small screen for the song and artist became a printed receipt.
I also wrote Synodia a love letter, a method from Hanington and Martin (2012). In concept portraits, which compare an idea with familiar things, Synodia came out as my Pulp T-shirt, nostalgic and a starter of music conversations, and as a university library, a place for exchange and community.
My dearest Synodia,
Every song you play, every turn you make, every receipt that rolls out, I'll be listening. Before the day you were conceived, I've been so lost in endless song skips, but you, Synodia, you brought the music back to my heart.
Sharing music through you isn't just pushing the record button, it's like writing one more love letter, to one of my friends, each time.
Your devoted creator, Nikos
I had no 3D modelling experience and too little time to learn Blender, so I built in Figma and with simple materials. I covered my thin industrial-design knowledge with tutorials and designs I like. And when the design grew complicated, against its own idea of slowness, I removed features until the meaningful ones were left.
Last, I tested the loop by hand with three friends, before any object existed. That test is under How it went.
How it went
The design covers the whole product: the controls, the loop, the listening interval, a receipt instead of a screen, a left-handed version, the box and the type.
The drift off the 24-hour day was what they found most intriguing, and I took it as a feature of the design.
Its limits: three intervals, three close friends with similar taste, and a group chat standing in for the object.
Synodia exists as renders, a Figma prototype and hand-carved forms. What I hoped it would do in the wild was turn people from music consumers into listeners, and give friends a reason to talk about music.
Three close friends in one group chat: the loop.
Me, playing the device: I collected the songs and passed them on.
- Interval 1, 28 hoursDuring it
All three friends sent me a song.
At its endI passed each song on to another friend in a private message, and asked for the next.
- Interval 2, 20 hoursDuring it
All three friends sent me a song.
At its endThree songs passed on again, and the next request.
- Interval 3, 28 hoursDuring it
Two of three friends sent me a song.
At its endTwo songs passed on. One friend got only the group message. On Synodia they would hear noise.
The three friends called it fun but a little underwhelming as a chat, since sharing songs is something they already do. After hearing the idea for the object, all agreed it would keep their interest high.
What I learned
The design grew against its own slowness, so I removed features until only the meaningful ones were left.
I had no 3D experience and too little time to learn Blender, so I built in Figma and simple materials and learned from tutorials.
Sketching the left-handed side showed early that the spark wheel would be hard to roll, so a mirrored version followed.