Jun 2025Sound
Where Conductivity Meets Curiosity: VS.WAV by Yarden ShaharJonathan Stein
VS.WAV is not quite an instrument, not quite a sculpture, and intentionally, never just one or the other. Designed by designer Yarden Shahar, this electronic musical object proposes a radically intuitive relationship between body, sound, and form. It invites not performance in the classical sense, but play—raw, instinctive, and untrained.
Rather than demand prior musical knowledge, VS.WAV is built for the curious. Its integrated conductive system allows users to generate harmonious tones through touch alone. Tuned to a pentatonic scale across two octaves, the instrument guarantees melodic coherence, even for those who’ve never touched a keyboard or string. The design flattens hierarchies between expert and amateur—between composition and improvisation.

Visually, VS.WAV reads like a waveform rendered in steel—a kinetic skyline of upright fins, cabled like an open circuit diagram. The form suggests repetition and rhythm, but also something more organic: the vertebrae of a mechanical spine, the stem of a futuristic plant, a sonic antenna rooted in sculptural soil. Shahar draws inspiration from musical instruments, biological structures, and the logic of architecture—all compressed into a singular, stand-alone entity.

Visually, VS.WAV reads like a waveform rendered in steel—a kinetic skyline of upright fins, cabled like an open circuit diagram. The form suggests repetition and rhythm, but also something more organic: the vertebrae of a mechanical spine, the stem of a futuristic plant, a sonic antenna rooted in sculptural soil. Shahar draws inspiration from musical instruments, biological structures, and the logic of architecture—all compressed into a singular, stand-alone entity.

Crucially, the project balances mechanical precision with poetic resonance. Nothing is hidden: the wires remain visible, the form remains open, the interaction remains unfiltered. It’s a design that prioritizes dialogue—between machine and human, eye and hand, logic and sensation.VS.WAV debuted as part of Milan’s 2025 Isola Design Festival in the “Conscious Objects” exhibition, a fitting stage for a work that blurs the line between utility and ritual. By transforming the act of music-making into a tactile experience of form, Shahar asks us to reimagine how we relate to objects—not as static tools, but as collaborators in expression.

In the hands of the user, VS.WAV becomes less an object and more a resonant space—an architecture of sound and sensation.

In the hands of the user, VS.WAV becomes less an object and more a resonant space—an architecture of sound and sensation.

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