Archive for the ‘Fun’ Category

Sight of sound

Your eardrum converts the motion of the air into something you can hear, but what if everything around you could work the same way? In a recent TED Talk, MIT researcher Abe Davis demonstrates cutting edge research into extracting audio from silent video of everyday objects exposed to sound. Using high-speed video equipment and even a consumer-level camera, he extracts intelligible music and speech just by watching a nearby houseplant or a snack bag—the proverbial “fly on the wall”. Acknowledging the surveillance possibilities (which were already feasible using lasers), the research pushes beyond audio to expose the natural modal movement of an object by simply ensonifying it and recording what happens, allowing one to push, pull, and shake something virtually without ever touching it.

those gosh darn mystery noises ….

Above Average via YouTube

does this sound familiar?

Doonesbury

Doonesbury by Garry Trudeau via boston.com

 

acoustics puzzler….

what is 70 dB on the outside but totally silent inside?

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But I know what I hear

This week, New York’s Museum of Modern Art is opening its first major exhibition of sound art, “Soundings: A Contemporary Score”.  Through November 3rd, visitors will be able to immerse themselves in auditory pieces designed by sixteen of the most innovative contemporary artists working with sound.

Forty-Part Motet

Not to be outdone, on September 10th the Metropolitan Museum of Art will present Janet Cardiff’s “Forty-Part Motet”, pictured above.  This first foray into sound by the Met (to be installed in Fuentidueña Chapel at The Cloisters) combines forty separately-recorded voices from forty loudspeakers into a 16th century choral ensemble, a synthesis that the New York Times notes has brought visitors to tears.  The Times also provides audio clips from the MOMA exhibition, noting that “while you can close your eyes to an image you hate, you can’t close your ears to a noise”—a risk without a parallel in the visual arts.

New tunnel between 33rd St and 40th St?

Well sort of….As part of the NYC Summer Streets 2013, artist Rafael Lozano-Hemmer will install Voice Tunnel, which includes 360 spotlights controlled by a special intercom located at the center of the tunnel that passses under Park Avenue between 33rd and 40th Streets.  The intercom will record public  participants voices and influence the intensity of the light – louder speech will increase the brightness of the lights.  The intent is to create ‘Morse-code like’ flashes based on the sound pattern and volume of speech.  The individual voices will also be audible on 180 loudspeakers located along the length of the tunnel.  It will be open on Saturdays between 7 am and 1 pm Aug 3rd, 10th and 17th.

The content of the piece will change constantly as participants come and go.  We are curious to hear how the reverberation within the tunnel and potential added acoustical absorption of people in the tunnel will influence the piece. That, and of course it is always neat to go places on foot where you can usually only drive…maybe we will see you there.