The idea of space, (as in "the final frontier") has always disturbed me. I think it is the "great unknown" aspect of it that gives me the creeps. Thinking too much about space has literally kept me awake at night. The vast and infinite nature of space reminds me in moments of weakness of my own insignificance by comparison. I sometimes think being an astronaut would be fascinating, in a completely terrifying sort of way - there's something about space which seems completely unreal to me. I suppose that's because I've never had, nor will I ever have any physical experience of space other than looking at it from down here. Or, maybe I will....Today I found a website that broadcasts live streams of the sound of space. You can listen here if you are interested: http://www.radio-astronomy.net/listen.htm
According to the website:
"Listeners will hear the acoustic output of radio telescopes live. The content of the live transmission will depend on the objects being observed by partner telescopes. On any given occasion listeners may hear the planet Jupiter and its interaction with its moons, radiation from the Sun, activity from far off pulsars or other astronomical phenomena."
The sounds are signals transmitted by planets and stars which are converted into audio and then transmitted online for our listening pleasure. When I listened to the stream what I heard couldn't really be described as pleasing - all I could hear was a scratchy static noise. I'm not entirely sure what I am listening for. I will have to listen again to see if I can determine any different sounds in the stream.
Radio Astronomy is a project organised by an online collaboration between a group called r a d i o q u a l i a and various radio telescopes located throughout the world. As the website explains, together they "are creating 'radio astronomy' in the literal sense - a radio station devoted to broadcasting audio from our cosmos." The Radio Astronomy project has been streaming the sound of space since 2004.
The sounds are signals transmitted by planets and stars which are converted into audio and then transmitted online for our listening pleasure. When I listened to the stream what I heard couldn't really be described as pleasing - all I could hear was a scratchy static noise. I'm not entirely sure what I am listening for. I will have to listen again to see if I can determine any different sounds in the stream.
Radio Astronomy is a project organised by an online collaboration between a group called r a d i o q u a l i a and various radio telescopes located throughout the world. As the website explains, together they "are creating 'radio astronomy' in the literal sense - a radio station devoted to broadcasting audio from our cosmos." The Radio Astronomy project has been streaming the sound of space since 2004.
r a d i o q u a l i a is an art group founded by New Zealanders' Honor Hager and Adam Hyde. In their projects they are interested in exploring the fields of art, science and technology and specifically in the ways in which "broadcasting technologies such as radio and online streaming media can be used to create new artistic forms, and the ways that sound art can be used to illuminate abstract ideas and processes."
It's amazing to me that I can sit at my computer at home, on planet Earth, and listen to the sound of outer-space. Listening to the live feed online from home is an example of how media technologies and communication networks such as the Internet compress space and time. Through my Internet linked computer I can listen to outer-space without physically visiting it myself - instead, the Internet brings the space of outer-space to me. Doreen Massey believes these faster and more intense flows and interconnections of communications and transportation have facilitated a change in our contemporary experience of time and space.* The Internet can facilitate an exchange of data at a rate that was previously impossible, and we've come to rely on this on a daily basis - communicating through emailing, downloading music online, online banking, are a few examples whereby the Internet has changed our perceptions of space and time.
In this project the radio-telescope apparatus picks up signals and transmits them into audible noise which is an impossible task for the human ear, meaning even if I could spend the time traveling to outer-space I would not be able to hear the same sounds transmitted online by Radio Astronomy. Thus the project brings together the potential of the telescope and the network capabilities of the Internet to create something for access in the virtual world that would otherwise be impossible to replicate in the actual world, other than conceptually.
This project also reminded me of the Fluxus artists of the 1960's. Fluxus described a network of artists who were interested in exploring the chance element in art, and in blending different artistic media with an early emphasis on exploring the properties of sound. The Radio Astronomy project employs the Internet and radio telescopes as types of artistic media, capturing, converting and transmitting the chance movements of planets and stars. Thus, it is in the intersection and relationship between these media that the artwork is created. I was also reminded of early Italian Futurist Luigi Russolo (1885-1947) who proposed that urban and industrial sounds could be thought of as 'new and enthralling sources of musical material.'* In Radio Astronomy, r a d i o q u a l i a have employed the radio telescope as a musical instrument which preforms "an ongoing and automated composition nuanced by the astronomers' target observations, the atmospheric conditions of a particular period, and the operational condition of the telescopes."
This project doesn't make me want to become an astronaut any more than before I read about it, but has certainly given me a lot to think about. I've just been listening again and this time I've heard a whole variety of awesome sounds - some examples include a ping like an elevator door opening, a shrill noise like fireworks going off, the sound of paper burning and a weird R2D2-like beeping. OK, I have to admit, I'm kind of scared I might hear something I don't want to hear... from a certain crop-circle creating species, not that I'd know what I was listening too probably, unless they spelled it out for me. It's pretty freaky Bowie.
*Texts used - New Media - A Critical Introduction. Martin Lister, Jon Dovey, Seth Giddings (eds) 2003, Routledge, p.171
The art of Noise, David Toop - 2005 http://www.tate.org.uk/tateetc/issue3/theartofnoise.htm
It's amazing to me that I can sit at my computer at home, on planet Earth, and listen to the sound of outer-space. Listening to the live feed online from home is an example of how media technologies and communication networks such as the Internet compress space and time. Through my Internet linked computer I can listen to outer-space without physically visiting it myself - instead, the Internet brings the space of outer-space to me. Doreen Massey believes these faster and more intense flows and interconnections of communications and transportation have facilitated a change in our contemporary experience of time and space.* The Internet can facilitate an exchange of data at a rate that was previously impossible, and we've come to rely on this on a daily basis - communicating through emailing, downloading music online, online banking, are a few examples whereby the Internet has changed our perceptions of space and time.
In this project the radio-telescope apparatus picks up signals and transmits them into audible noise which is an impossible task for the human ear, meaning even if I could spend the time traveling to outer-space I would not be able to hear the same sounds transmitted online by Radio Astronomy. Thus the project brings together the potential of the telescope and the network capabilities of the Internet to create something for access in the virtual world that would otherwise be impossible to replicate in the actual world, other than conceptually.
This project also reminded me of the Fluxus artists of the 1960's. Fluxus described a network of artists who were interested in exploring the chance element in art, and in blending different artistic media with an early emphasis on exploring the properties of sound. The Radio Astronomy project employs the Internet and radio telescopes as types of artistic media, capturing, converting and transmitting the chance movements of planets and stars. Thus, it is in the intersection and relationship between these media that the artwork is created. I was also reminded of early Italian Futurist Luigi Russolo (1885-1947) who proposed that urban and industrial sounds could be thought of as 'new and enthralling sources of musical material.'* In Radio Astronomy, r a d i o q u a l i a have employed the radio telescope as a musical instrument which preforms "an ongoing and automated composition nuanced by the astronomers' target observations, the atmospheric conditions of a particular period, and the operational condition of the telescopes."
This project doesn't make me want to become an astronaut any more than before I read about it, but has certainly given me a lot to think about. I've just been listening again and this time I've heard a whole variety of awesome sounds - some examples include a ping like an elevator door opening, a shrill noise like fireworks going off, the sound of paper burning and a weird R2D2-like beeping. OK, I have to admit, I'm kind of scared I might hear something I don't want to hear... from a certain crop-circle creating species, not that I'd know what I was listening too probably, unless they spelled it out for me. It's pretty freaky Bowie.
*Texts used - New Media - A Critical Introduction. Martin Lister, Jon Dovey, Seth Giddings (eds) 2003, Routledge, p.171
The art of Noise, David Toop - 2005 http://www.tate.org.uk/tateetc/issue3/theartofnoise.htm
1 comment:
Hey nice write up of an intriguing project! I have never myself wondered but this made me think of the idea of the 'cosmic symphony' :P I do wonder if planets speak to each other...
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