Cloudscapes

The Cloud Harp is a meteo-electronic installation that converts real-time, thanks to an infra-red laser beam and a telescope sharing the same optics, the height, density and structure of clouds into sounds and musical sequences. The melodies and sounds are determined by factors such as cloud height, density, structure, luminosity, and meteorological conditions. Each cloudscape produces a particular kind of sequence. The Harp is polyphonic : it can sing on many different voices simultaneously, each one being mapped on a specific altitude range. It sings 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, by any weather. When the sky is blue, it remains silent. The range of the instrument is 25 000 feet or 8 kilometers, which means that some high stratospheric clouds, such as cirruses, are not detected.
On a technological point of view, the Harp is similar to a giant CD player, turned upside down. In compact disc technology, a small lens captures a tiny laser beam modulated by microscopic holes on the surface of the disc; a decoding system converts the modulations into music or sound. Here, the small laser beam is replaced by a large infrared one; the lens is replaced by a telescope; the role of the compact disc is played by the cloud itself.

The Cloud Harp is also known as the Keplerian Harp, after the German astronomer Johannes Kepler, who was one of the first, with his “Music of the Spheres”, to attempt the transposition of a natural phenomenon into music.