Wigwam Motel, Holbrook AZ
Space Sounds - New Episode of It’s Okay To Be Smart!!
There is no sound in space.
In the near-vacuum of space, there is nothing to transmit the physical waves that we need to perceive sound. But that doesn’t mean we can’t MAKE sound from space.
This week, I channeled some inner Sagan, got a bit artsy, and I’m happy to feature several brilliant folks using scientific data to create “space sonification” projects. From the longest palindrome ever created to a chorus made from Earth’s magnetic field, these pieces truly lie at the intersection of art and science. More than just art, they allow us to perceive patterns in complex data in a completely new way. Some of them are actually used as part of space research projects!
Perhaps it answers the question: If the universe had a voice, what song would it sing?
For those of you who follow the blog in addition to the YouTube channel, you’ll get some special treats this week when I feature even more space sonification examples that we couldn’t fit into this episode!
FULL Versions of the pieces featured in this week’s video:
Robert Alexander - Transit of Venus
Daniel Starr-Tambor - “Mandala” (this piece is the longest palndrome ever created, at 62 viginitillion notes!!)
Coupled is a series of prints, depicting a somewhat complicated relationship between two (or more) objects, by Safwat Saleem.
Undercover Jobs: Taking Abuse as a Times Square Photo-Op
Eimear Lynch, Condé Nast Traveler Word of Mouth Editor braves the New York City streets as Cookie Monster.
Excerpt:
“On an average afternoon in the area around 44th and Broadway in Midtown Manhattan, you’ll find a motley crew of Chewbaccas, Buzz Lightyears, and Minnie Mouses—along with the usual Naked Cowboy and face-painted Statues of Liberty—posing for tourists’ pictures and demanding cash in return… I imagined the job could be pretty lucrative. If a Cookie Monster cornered even a half percent of the 300,000 people who funnel through Times Square daily, he’d pose for 1,500 photos and make about that much in cash, assuming a one-dollar tip for each shot… So why aren’t we all donning flammable fur and standing beneath the bright lights? Well, because it’s harder than it would seem to make a buck in the billion-watt capital of America…”(click title at top for full story)
The Ringling Brothers featuring Crandall and his comic burlesque equestrian act on his riding mule “Thunderbolt”, 1899 (via Library of Congress)
ShefitaANDSabbaba . Karma Police
Tel Aviv-based musicians Rotem Shefy (vocalist) and Leat Sabbah (cellist/arranger), collaborating with oud player Yaniv Taichmann and percussionist Ori Dekel, transform Radiohead’s hit in a full-blown middle-eastern version of Karma Police.
‘The less I look in your eyes, the longer I get to keep it’
by Mia-Jane Harris
- Taxidermy jay, mummified jay heart, vintage accessories
Lyapis Trubetskoy . Capital
“Biting music from Minsk, Belarus (Weißrussland), with an amazing surrealistic Pop Art video by Alexey Terekhov.”
Phone Answering Robot
Built in 1964, back when we as a society seemed to share a collective fascination with robots that would do our household chores, this phone-answering robot was not nearly as functional as it might look at first. Its abilities were limited to picking up the phone…and putting the phone back down. It couldn’t act as a message recorder or even a message player, but it sure did look cool.
(via WebUrbanist)
