Meng Qi Cricket

Meng Qi’s Cricket is a solar-powered noise generator shaped like a beetle, blending experimental synthesis with sculpture, sound art, and playful design. Designed to run entirely on sunlight, Cricket awakens with chirps, drones, and glitches as soon as it catches a beam of light—no batteries or external power required.

It houses three oscillators and a built-in speaker, with four capacitive touch points across its hexagonal body that respond to your skin, controlling pitch, modulation, rhythm, and glitch. On the back, antenna-like pads and three trim pots let you tweak the sensitivity and interfere with the sound’s timbre and behaviour.

Cricket isn’t about precise control—it’s a living, reactive object that mutates with the light and your interaction. Whether you wear it using the included clip or let it chirp ambiently by a window, it challenges what a synthesizer can be: expressive, unpredictable, and alive in your hands.