AC [Institute Direct Chapel] presents Tone and Temperament :: June 18 - July 18, 2009 :: Opening: June 18; 6:00 - 8:00 pm :: AC [Institute Direct Chapel], 547 W. 27th St, 5th Floor, #519-529, New York, NY.

Tone and Temperament is a group-exhibition that considers the temporal and expandable material of sound. Curated by Sophie Landres and in collaboration with the eight participating artists, this exhibition concentrates on sound as a condition for personal, social, political and metaphysical experience. In addition to the permanent fixtures in the gallery, performances will be scheduled to occur throughout the duration of the exhibition.

Tone and Temperament was conceived as an opportunity to explore literal and conceptual ideas of harmony versus discordance and innocence versus criminality that subsist within the framework of conflicting social norms and art historical precedents. Continue reading

Turbulence Commission: Hard Data by R. Luke DuBois [Needs Flash plugin and speakers; wait for data to load] Hard Data is a data-mining, sonification, and visualization project that uses statistics from the American military actions in Afghanistan and Iraq as source material for an interactive audiovisual composition based around an open-source “score” of events. Using Xenakis’ understanding of formalized music as a starting point, DuBois draws upon a variety of statistical data ranging from the visceral (civilian deaths, geospatial renderings of military actions) to the mundane (fiscal year budgets for the war) to generate a dataset that can be used for any number of audiovisual compositions. Continue reading

Pace Digital Gallery is pleased to present Turbulence@ PaceDigitalGallery, an exhibition premiering 3 works commissioned by Turbulence.org :: April 7 - May 1, 2009 :: Reception: April 7, 5:00 - 7:00 pm :: 163 William Street, New York City.

Hard Data — by R. Luke DuBois — is a data-mining, sonification, and visualization project that uses statistics from the American military actions in Afghanistan and Iraq as source material for an interactive audiovisual composition based around an open-source “score” of events. Using Xenakis’ understanding of formalized music as a starting point, DuBois will use a variety of statistical data ranging from the visceral (civilian deaths, geospatial renderings of military actions) to the mundane (fiscal year budgets for the war) to generate a dataset that can be used for any number of audiovisual compositions. Continue reading

Cyberbirds: Audio | Video Peacock are mobile multimedia screens by Benoît Maubrey — The Audio Peacock is a wearable electronic instrument constructed out of polycarbonate (plexi-glass) equipped with loudspeakers, amplifier, battery and different sound-making devices (microphone, sampler, radio receiver, interactive sensors). As Video Peacocks, the costume functions also as a mobile screen onto which theme-specific visualizations (movies, pictures, internet blogs, interactive computer images, webcasts and closed circuit camera views) are projected.

This wearable electroacoustic instrument is shaped into a peacock’s fan-like plumage and is highly directional — projecting the sound into a space like an oversized radar dish. Much in the same way that the courtyard peacock “strutts his stuff” in front of a pea-hen and imposes with his awesome cry, so does the Audio Peacock stalk his architectural domain — using sound as a scalpel that cuts through air and sculpts it, transforming it to into his new realm. Continue reading

Stephen Hurrel’s Beneath and Beyond: Seismic Sounds is an audio visual installation at Glasgow’s Tranway, as part of the annual GI festival for Visual Art. The installation presents a realtime feed of seismic shifts recorded from data of 100 of so seismic monitoring stations around the Earth. We are presented with the sound of the various vibrations going on within the Earth’s core at that very moment. We also see two visual screens showing graphical displays of particularly large tectonic shifts or events at that one time. Continue reading

From Information Aesthetics, January 28, 2009: Rubens’ Tube: Real Life Sound Visualization with Fire and Propane: A classic physics experiment called Rubens’ Tube involves sound, a tube of propane, and fire. A length of pipe is perforated along the top and sealed at both ends. One seal is attached to a small speaker or frequency generator, the other to a supply of a flammable gas. The pipe is filled with the gas, and the gas leaking from the perforations is lit. If a constant frequency is used, a standing wave can form within the tube. When the speaker is turned on, the standing wave will create higher and lower pressure points along the tube. Continue reading

Music Is Math from Glenn Marshall on Vimeo. Continue reading

In case you missed it, Radiohead have gone all data-aesthetic with their latest video, House of Cards. What’s more, it’s fully zeitgeist-compliant, with open access and a call for re-visualisations of a quite massive dataset: hundreds of megabytes of spatial data gathered with various 3d laser-scanning rigs. If the download stats and early signs are anything to go on, we will be seeing much more of this dataset. Continue reading

Natural magnetic fields are revealed as chaotic, ever-changing geometries as scientists from NASA’s Space Sciences Laboratory excitedly describe their discoveries. Continue reading

(image: a graphical visualization of the electronic score Artikulation by György Ligeti from 1958)

The music predates the modern analog synthesizers of the late 60’s & early 70’s, as the sound sources are a combination of generated sound and tape manipulation. The score is based on a timeline measured in seconds, using shapes & colors instead of notes on a staff. Dots represent impulses & combs for noise. Colors stand for variations in timbre & pitch.

The resulting movie can also be seen here.

Thanks to information aesthetics.