Gather
Pull wax toward your finger.
Spinodal help
Play with
the lamp.
A tap clouds the wax. A slow drag turns the glass. Start there, then try a tool.
Learn the gestures
01 / Start here
The glass responds.
- Tap
- Dissolve wax where you touch. It clouds, then separates back into blobs.
- Scrub
- Move quickly back and forth across the glass to shake the wax.
- Drag
- Move sideways in one direction to turn the lamp. Deselect a tool first.
Want a shake without scrubbing? Open Lamp → More → Shake now.
App update Shake the device
Newer test builds offer Device shake in Lamp → More on supported phones and tablets. Enable it, allow motion access if asked, then shake deliberately back and forth. It works in every drive mode. Turn it off to stop reading motion.
02 / Get your bearings
Find the controls.
Tap beside the glass to reveal the controls. In the public web preview, Room is at the top left and Lamp at the top right. The tools sit to the left of the glass; the heat rail is on the right. The controls fade after a few seconds without a touch.
Artist keeps the wax moving automatically. You can turn it off to leave the lamp to its physics. Your touch still works either way.
App update Artist, Mic and Natural
A three-way switch chooses one driver at a time:
- Artist: the lamp composes movement with jets and gentle turns.
- Mic: room sound and music move the wax. Choose Mic again for input settings.
- Natural: physics, with no autopilot.
The choice is saved. Touch and enabled device shaking work in every mode.
Desktop tools stay beside the lamp. Tour in Lamp gives a guided introduction. Focus clears the controls; use the settings control beside the logo or Escape to return. Press V to toggle it on a keyboard.
03 / Move the wax
Pick a tool.
Draw on the glass.
Swirl
Stir the liquid around your finger.
Repel
Push wax away from your finger.
Tap beside the glass, choose a tool, then drag across the glass. Tap the selected tool again to turn it off and return to ordinary glass gestures.
04 / Give it a push
Fire the jets.
In the public web preview, hold the base to fire an upward jet. Let go to stop. You can also use the Jets control in Lamp.
App update New jet controls
Tap a lit dot on the base or cap to start jets. Tap a dot at the same end again to stop. Drag a light to start and aim; release to leave the jet running. Select the jet arrow to control an active jet. The surrounding base rotates the lamp.
The Jets panel provides origin, height, angle and strength controls, plus explicit Fire and Stop buttons.
The newer controls are not active in the public web preview.
App update Studio and the demo
Manual jets and music reactivity are part of Studio. The current app offers separate demos: 30 seconds of manual jets, followed by a two-minute cooldown, and two minutes of music-reactive motion, followed by a two-minute cooldown. The lamp keeps playing when the demo ends. Follow the access status and timing shown in your build.
05 / Make it yours
Heat, color and light.
Drag the base up or down to change the heat, or use Lamp → More → Heat. The range is off to twice normal. At 150% and above, wax clings to the top. A cold lamp needs time for its first plume to rise.
In Lamp, choose a color, turn on Top light for lighting from above, or use Colour wheel for rotating lighting colors.
Start over
Cold returns the wax to a pool to warm up again. Warm starts with blobs already moving.
App update Heat is a dial in Lamp
Newer builds put the Heat dial directly in Lamp, alongside the palette and lighting controls. Dragging the base turns the lamp instead of adjusting heat. The reset glyph shares a row with Cold and Warm. Keyboard heat shortcuts still work.
06 / Let the room join in
Listen to a song.
- Open Room at the top left.
- Choose the inputs you want. Noise uses the microphone; Movement uses the camera and starts off.
- Choose Start listening. Play music with a steady beat near the device.
Jets pulse with the beat, bass swirls the wax and sharp hits push it away. The app may treat the first 12 seconds as ordinary room noise while it finds a beat. Music without a steady beat may continue to count as noise.
To stop listening in the web preview, tap Room again. A microphone cannot hear music playing only through headphones.
Live input, on your device
Sound and camera input are analyzed locally using temporary buffers. Spinodal does not record microphone audio or camera video, or upload that input. Camera and microphone access are your choice.
App update Choose Mic to listen
In newer test builds, choose Mic in the drive switch. The microphone input is labeled Mic rather than Noise. Choose Mic again to adjust the inputs. Choosing Artist or Natural stops listening.
On a bigger screen
Show on TV.
On iPhone or iPad, use Apple’s Screen Mirroring to share the screen with an Apple TV, AirPlay-compatible TV or Mac.
- Connect both devices to the same Wi-Fi network.
- Swipe down from the upper-right corner to open Control Center.
- Tap Screen Mirroring, choose your TV or Mac, and enter the displayed passcode if asked.
- Return to Spinodal, hide the controls and keep the app open.
To finish, open Control Center → Screen Mirroring → Stop Mirroring. This shares the device screen, including controls and other screen content that appears, rather than a separate TV-only view. Performance depends on the device and connection.
07 / Keep a hand on the keys
Keyboard shortcuts.
- ← →
- Turn the lamp
- Space
- Dissolve wax
- S
- Shake
- 1 2 3
- Gather, Swirl, Repel
- − =
- Lower or raise the heat
- P
- Next color
- Esc
- Dismiss the current panel
Click or tap the lamp first. Shortcuts do not apply while you are typing in a field.
App update Newer keyboard controls
J opens Jets; V toggles Focus; ? opens keyboard help. Arrow keys and Space act on the lamp when it has keyboard focus. Shift + P selects the previous color.
08 / When something seems stuck
A few things to check.
I cannot find the controls.
Tap the empty space beside the glass. In a newer test build, use the settings control beside the logo or Escape to leave Focus. Close the open panel or use Back to leave More.
The music is not doing much.
Check that Room is listening, or that Mic is selected in a newer build. Allow microphone access, use speakers rather than headphones, and try a track with a clear beat. Give the app about 12 seconds to find it.
The microphone or camera was denied.
Check permissions for this site or app in your browser or device settings. Enable only the inputs you want, then try Start listening again.
The wax is sitting at the bottom.
A cold start needs time. Check that Heat is not off, or choose Lamp → Start over → Warm to begin with moving blobs.
The browser says WebGPU is unavailable.
The interactive web preview needs WebGPU. Try an up-to-date browser and device that support it. A browser update may help; this guide does not require WebGPU.
Tapping the lights does nothing.
The public web preview still uses a hold on the base. Newer builds use the lit dots and selectable jet arrow. Check Studio or demo access if the jet will not start.
09 / Under the glass
About Spinodal.
Spinodal is a simulated wax lamp made by Mind Bending Pixels. Its name comes from spinodal decomposition: the way an unstable mixture separates.
For the equations, measurements and design choices behind the wax, read Teaching Wax to Unmix.