Radius Episode 56: Martin Howse’s Carrier/Container/Detektor in coordination with current space weather forecast conditions on October 20, 21, 22, 23, 25, and 26 at 10:00 pm CST. Broadcast locally (Chicago, IL) on 88.9-FM with a secondary stream online.

Martin Howse is occupied with an artistic investigation of the links between the earth (geophysical phenomena), software, and the human psyche (psychogeophysics), proposing a return to animism within a critical misuse of scientific technology. Continue reading

Turbulence@PaceDigitalGallery3: WoodEar by Peter Traub with Jennifer Lauren Smith :: April 16-May 3, 2013 :: Opening Reception: April 16; 5:00 – 7:00 pm :: Pace Digital Gallery, NYC. Continue reading

Turbulence Commission: WoodEar by Peter Traub [Needs download, and Speakers/Headphones]:

Bringing the body of the tree to the network is a natural fit — a tree is a network too: roots sensing and absorbing nutrients, leaves sensing and photosynthesizing sunlight, and phloem and xylem running throughout to carry nutrients across the structure. WoodEar attempts to merge the dynamic qualities of this biological network with the digital network. A series of sensors attached to the tree stream data on the state of its environment — light, temperature, air pressure, and wind. This live data is merged with photos and recordings of the tree’s immediate surroundings into a generative application/installation. By downloading and running the application, anyone can access the live environmental experiences of the tree — one that may be very distant from them, but that still shares the same air, sun, earth, and sky. Continue reading

Swiss acoustic artist Robin Meier and Ali Momeni manipulate the sounds of insects and birds to create ethereal soundscapes. Read an interview with him about his mosquito-inspired musical installation Truce recently aired in the French city of Nantes. Meier talks about firefly synchrony and setting up feedback loops in nature.

From the interview:

Why did you choose to work with mosquitoes?

Male mosquitoes serenade potential mates with a ‘love song’ by vibrating their wings. They synchronize their wingbeats with those of the females to mate in mid-air. … The constant glissandi — gliding from one pitch to another — and ‘tuning in’ of mosquito wingbeats reminded me of dhrupad, an ancient form of Indian classical music often sung by brothers in unison. My collaborator Ali Momeni and I played male mosquitoes some dhrupad and, sure enough, they tuned in.

Bartholomäus Traubeck’s artwork Years is a converted record player that can play cross-sectional slices taken from a tree trunk. [via]

Continue reading

After a 10 month hiatus the SoundTransit project is back, hosted by Turbulence.org.

SoundTransit is a collaborative, online community dedicated to field recording and phonography. Phonography is the art of recording sounds from the environment around us, with an emphasis on the unintentional sounds which often go unnoticed in our daily lives. An international community of phonographers collect and share their recordings, with interests ranging from recordings of natural or urban environments to improvised situations or soundwalks, to the resonance of solid objects or the Earth’s atmosphere. Continue reading

Soundwalk and Chicago Phonography Concert :: Saturday, October 8, 2011 from 1:00 p.m. – 3:00 p.m. :: Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore’s Paul H. Douglas Center for Environmental Education — 100 North Lake Street,
Gary, Indiana:: Created By Dan Godston for the World Listening Project.

The Midwest Society for Acoustic Ecology and World Listening Project continue their partnership with the National Park Service to present a concert by Chicago Phonography and a Miller Woods soundwalk at the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore’s Paul H. Douglas Center for Environmental Education. All ages, free and open to the public.

Explore the natural soundscape of Miller Woods trail with a soundwalk led by the Midwest Society for Acoustic Ecology. Continue reading

“There’s a free concert taking place at a forest in Germany, and the headline acts have come from far, far away. NPR guest host Jacki Lyden talks to New York-based artist Jeff Talman about his German sound installation, Nature of the Night Sky. Working with astrophysicist Daniel Huber, Talman used radiation and seismic data from stars and shaped it into music, played back after sundown each night in a Bavarian forest.” (National Public Radio)

The sounds come from the star Procyon in Canis Minor. With the help of astrohysicist Daniel Huber, Talman has transposed the sounds so that we can hear them. The program is available on National Public Radio: hear Talman talk about his Bavarian forest sound installation, and listen to the sounds: here.

You can learn more at Talman’s website.

Artist-technologist Honor Harger listens to the weird and wonderful noises of stars and planets and pulsars. In her work, she tracks the radio waves emitted by ancient celestial objects and turns them into sound, including “the oldest song you will ever hear,” the sound of cosmic rays left over from the Big Bang. Related.