Albert Einstein once claimed, “If the bee disappeared off the surface of the globe then man would only have four years of life left. No more bees, no more pollination, no more plants, no more animals, no more man,”. With this in mind, the recent decline of the honey bee is especially alarming. Luckily artists like Troels Folmann are trying to raise awareness about the true impact of the humble bumble bee. In this case, by making music from bees.

'4"33" by John Cage' - Photo by Steve Rhodes (CCSA)

Over at the New Yorker there’s a great piece about John Cage, one of the most important and influential composers of the 20th century, and one who had a very real impact on the progression of experimental sound art and music. Check it out while it’s free here.

Sculptural Musical Scores - Photo By Nathalie Miebach

I’ve written a few previous posts about my Masters thesis project which parallels and ties in with the content of this blog. Im currently investigating several areas to focus my research but at the moment I’m broadly looking into the intersection between sound art and sound science.

There are many ways that the two realms can become intertwined. Alvin Lucier’s pioneering sound works, including his most famous piece “I Am Sitting In a Room“, are meditations on the physical properties of sound (and well worth a listen). Modern sound sculptures like the Panopticons and the “tree horn” utilise natural phenomenon to create sculptures that breathe with movement and life.

Then there is the growing trend among sound artists to make use of environmental data (seismic, meteorological etc etc.) to create works of art whose design reflect natural processes. In a previous post I wrote about Trimpin, a zany and eclectic sound artist who employs such techniques. Another such artist is sculptor Nathalie Miebach. She creates wonderfully colourful woven sculptures based upon weather data she collects. Her artistic statement provides a fascinating overview of her ideas and a clear summation of many of the themes being explored in this explosion of science themed art (or art themed science?).

But it is her so called “sculptural musical scores” that interest me the most. Nathalie explains the process of their creation:

“Recently, I have begun translating weather data collected in cities into musical scores, which are then translated into sculptures as well as being a source for collaboration with musicians. These pieces are not only devices that map meteorological conditions of a specific time and place, but are also functional musical scores to be played by musicians. While musicians have freedom to interpret, they are asked not to change the essential relationship of the notes to ensure that what is still heard is indeed the meteorological relationship of weather data.”

As well as being semi-functional and fascinating as an experiment in mixed media science communication, they are also wonderful to look at. I’ll be looking into writing more about Nathalie in future and incorporating her ideas into my Masters thesis.

Earthquake Aftermath - Photo by Richard Walker (CCBY)

Well, not quite art. It’s a rather simple conversion of raw scientific data into music. But boy is it effective in making the data more comprehensible, more emotional.

Tim Prebble set about converting the numerical information describing the magnitude of the recent Christchurch earthquake and subsequent aftershocks into musical form. Check out the fascinating results here. They really help to put the sheer frequency of aftershocks in perspective.

Wind Farm - Photo by freefoto.com (CCBY)

There’s little info available at the moment but it looks as if the film is presented in a quasi-horror feel. Definitely one to watch out for.

Animal Composer - Photo by Richard Levine (CCBY)

It’s been a while since I posted on Bernie Krause but I just received his autobiography from Amazon and its sparked new interest in his work. A quick perusal of the net lead me to this video I watched a few months ago and which is definitely worth a look for anybody interested in acoustic ecology (soundscape ecology as Krause calls it) and the environment in general.

Krause has a book coming out with the same title. Stay tuned for an update on that.

Big City Sound and Light - Photo by Francisco Diez (CCBY)

For the final installment of the Late Reflections podcast, I present something in the creation of which I had some involvement. As yet another bow to the Wild the City string, Tess Bunny put together a team of keen young film students to make a short “soundscape film” telling the story of the sound of the city.

The film went through many iterations before assuming its final form (it still isn’t actually finished), but the ideas have remained the same.

In this episode Tess and I will run you through the story, letting you experience the sound yourself. As well as being interesting, think of it as a wee teaser for the film to come.

(Download here)

The second issue is the sonic impact of wind farms. They are notoriously loud. I wasn’t aware of how loud until I saw this video and it made me rethink my position about wind-farms.

I actually like the sight of sleek, modern windmills dotted throughout scenic landscapes. But I wouldn’t be so keen on them if I were forced to deal with this kind of noise. But then, we’re going to have to make some sacrifices somewhere if we are to make a significant switch to renewable energy sources, so where will these sacrifices come?