But it’s silent no more. Listen to Wikipedia, inspired by Listen to Bitcoin and created by Mahmoud Hashemi and Stephen LaPorte, transforms the worldwide editing process into a relaxed global orchestra. A celesta plays whenever an addition is made. A clavichord sounds whenever something is deleted. The higher the pitch, the smaller the edit.
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| Visualized Sounds of Wikipedia Edits |
And just like a wind chime, the tones play on a pentatonic scale, which allows any random order of notes (or edits) to sound equally pleasant. Meanwhile, the soundscape is supported by a bokeh-like visualization in which registered users (green), unregistered users (white), and even bots (purple) update Wikipedia’s pages.
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Unfortunately in reality this would sound like a bunch of elementary school kids blowing recorders, banging biscuit tins, and tunelessly squealing the latest pop song.Co.Design, Hatnote
23 comments:
A real clavichord makes a sound about as loud as a box of pins dropping.
Pitch is determined by pressure, loudness by speed.
Thurston Dart was the master.
Here's one youtube.
It's important to bear in mind that nobody ever actually heard the Music of the Spheres.
Anybody who thinks a wind chime sounds good on a windy day never heard one.
better instance
Looks like Lem has gotten into the NJ Medical Cannabis stache.
I think there may be a church near us that gives free carillon concerts every Wednesday evening in the summer.
I never bothered to look into it, suspecting as I did that the music would be a recording broadcast through loudspeakers.
What's the point of such clumsy music if you can't see the poor, suffering musicians pulling on the ropes all sweaty and out of breath?
Stunned, amazed, gratified, charmed.
Some of your better male handbell players grow up to become first-rate civil war reenactors.
There was about a three year period around the turn of the 20th century when mandolin orchestras were all the rage.
I never heard one but I suspect they played nothing but Vivaldi.
"Unfortunately in reality this would sound like a bunch of elementary school kids blowing recorders, banging biscuit tins, and tunelessly squealing the latest pop song."
That's great line.
Silence is becoming harder to come by.
Thanks for that second example, rh. I find the clavichord pretty clangy, but that demonstrated its purity.
Cool links, Chip!
This reminded me of something I wanted to blog but didn't for technical reasons. Perhaps someone can help. The American Chemical Society maintains a database of new chemical substance -- real individual molecules -- which that continually add to, assigning unique names and codes. They are up to over 73 million unique species. Their website has a counter which reminds me of one of those nation debt clocks. The website is very busy-looking and the counter is at the bottom right at this link. Watch it move in real time, day and night. I wanted to find a way to draw it out as a stand alone link but I'm not savvy enough to do that.
Thank Lem, not Chip.
Oops!
Sorry, Lem. Will you fire me now?
Those slights can be painful. The very first comment I ever left at vbspurs blog got me a "thanks Chuck!"
El Pollo, this thing?
I wasn't sure about the soundscape tag.
The term "soundscape" can also refer to an audio recording or performance of sounds that create the sensation of experiencing a particular acoustic environment, or compositions created using the found sounds of an acoustic environment, either exclusively or in conjunction with musical performances.
Yes Rabel, thanks! I'll make a post on it when I can think of how to make it more interesting than watching paint dry.
The soundscape in the Ether's music video is interesting where the vine creeps up the outside of an apartment house, crawls inside the apartment, corners the renter and presents her with a mechanical flowe. The sounds outside of vehicles passing, a bus sounds more like dolphins with a Doppler effect, you recognize the sound as recorded dolphins but know it means bus passing. And other sounds too that do not fit exactly, but do connote urban activity at night and impart a strong touch of menace.
Sorry, Lem. Will you fire me now?
I got a poster confused myself a couple of weeks ago.
@Mitchell: that's an interesting linkat 10:08 and was sorely lacking from my liberal arts education.
Those slights can be painful.
I wish I could post like Chip.
Are you kidding?
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