Fascinating Astronomy Music Project

Folks - thought you might like this - I did! Check out the short film - it explains the project really well. If you like it, take a vote.

Having had some involvement with organisations for folks with special needs, I think this is a real "outside the box" idea and has great merit in bringing wonders of the universe to people with a visual impairment.

Robert explains it all below.





Dear Dave,

I hope you don’t mind, but I thought that I would write to ask if you might help spread the word about a project that I am currently working on. The work in question is a proposed sound installation that aims to reinterpret the pattern of the stars and their movement across the sky through the use of sound, thus allowing listeners the opportunity to actually hear the difference between the various stars and how they relate to Earth as it rotates on its axis. The result will be a ground-breaking development for the blind and partially sighted as, for the first time it will be possible to actually listen to the changing perspective of the stars irrespective of one’s eyesight or local light pollution.

Currently the project (entitled aroundNorth) is shortlisted for the prestigious PRSF New Music Award. Along with the other short-listed candidates, we have made a short film explaining our idea, and this can be seen at: www.prsformusicfoundation.com/newmusicaward/aroundnorth.htm . Please do have a look at it, and if you think it appropriate then please register your vote online, and encourage others to do so. The more votes that are accumulated, the greater the chance that we will attain the funding required to create the work and to ensure that this idea can happen. It is also possible to vote via mobile phone by texting ‘1’ to 70099. (Outside the UK it will be necessary to add the appropriate dialling code, so +44 70099).

For those willing to express their thoughts on the work there is also the opportunity to win a state-of-the-art music system…. To enter for this go to the competition blog at: blog.bowers-wilkins.com/sound/ck/prsf-ne...win-a-zeppelin-mini/ .

Please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any questions. You can find more information about the project at www.aroundNorth.wordpress.com .

With grateful thanks,


Robert


www.aroundNorth.wordpress.com (aroundNorth project blog)
www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=132193303472087&v=info (facebook group)
www.prsformusicfoundation.com/newmusicaward/aroundnorth.htm (film and vote)
blog.bowers-wilkins.com/sound/ck/prsf-ne...win-a-zeppelin-mini/ (competition blog)

Dave

Thanks for posting that.

I looked at the video and it initially rang my bell with a big hammer. I'm a software engineer by training - don't do that now though - and the technical possiblilities raced through my mind. I beleive that there are great things that can be done to aid the visually impaired visualise (I assert that that is the correct word) that which we (not visually impaired) can see with our eyes. I think the idea to do this, is somehow and somewhat, wonderful.

What concerns me (to some extent) is that this is a "prestigious music award" being sought - nothing in what I saw or read leads me to believe that we are going to meaningfully enrich the lives of the visually impaired. (We may entertain, however). To visualise the sky, for the visually impaired, we need to convey information that we take for granted. One needs to know the spatial distribution of the stars - and some characteristics of them. I believe that this can be done with sound but the man isn't coming up with a tool (as far as I understand his endeavors) to do that. However, he has an idea that could be leveraged into something wonderful but the immediate target is for a music award - I'm not comfortable.

To conclude - and in an attempt to be fair - he's an artist that what artists do - and he's done it very successfully with me (even before his piece of work is, or not, commissioned, he's made me think). The value of artists, IMHO, is making us think in ways we don't do ordinarly...

Mark

Mark - I actually crafted a great post only to be hit by a "bad request" and lose it all...

Anyhow, the gist was that you make a great point - I hadn't considered the "aftermath". However, I'd hope, that since Armagh are supporting the project, there would be at least some kind of aftermath - either Robert turns his project into a more widely available resource or he lets others do so.

Nonetheless, its a great idea and supect few, if any astronmers, considered the concept. At least he deserves credit for that. But I hope, as I'm sure you and others do, that the project goes beyond the competition stage and truly becomes a resource for visually impaired folks as well as others.

You make a great point though.

Dave

Hi Mark and Dave,

Thank you both for your comments.

First of all, you’re right: - I am first of all a composer and am thinking of aroundNorth in terms of a musical composition. However, I should also explain that I am keen that the composition can have a functional value as well as an aesthetic one. Certainly, my understanding is that Armagh Observatory is interested in the work in terms of its interpretative possibilities. In short, my wish is that aroundNorth will help make a very real connection with the wider universe, bringing listeners’ attention not only to how the speed of the rotation of the Earth relates to our perception of other celestial spheres, but also to the various patterns inherent in the stars’ positions in relation to Earth. For the piece to do this successfully it will have to do two things: namely, be thoughtfully engaging and also have a rigour of accuracy, and to help with the latter I am in collaboration with a number of professional astronomers.

As Mark implies, there are many interesting possibilities in terms of what astronomical data is already available as well as how these are mapped sound-wise in my musical score. Currently, for example, I am thinking that for one of my sound parameters, I will work with stars down to an apparent magnitude of 8 (so, beyond what is normally seen). However, I am also very interested in the possibility of working with absolute magnitude, primarily as that would give the listener quite a different ‘reading’ of the stars. In perhaps a similar manner, I am also keen to work with spectral data in order to give the different coloured stars their own corresponding unique sounds, thus allowing the listener the opportunity of hearing the difference between different star types. This is something that the Observatory is particularly interested in, and again will present the listener with new information.

From the beginning of my research for this project, I have also been interested in how aroundNorth could perhaps operate as some sort of interpretative tool though to be honest wasn’t sure whether there would be enough interest or not. I was thinking, for example, that aroundNorth (the tool) could maybe allow the user to listen within certain magnitudes, specific declination ranges, or at different speeds. However, it is at this point when my head begins to hurt. As Mark correctly deduces, as an artist I am more used to shaping questions, rather than presenting the world with answers!

Sooner than later though I am going to have to begin thinking about possibilities as obviously it would be preferable if these could be embedded into the architecture of the work from its inception. In terms of this aspect of the work’s potential I would therefore be very happy to receive any feedback or expertise that people within this forum might care to offer.

Thank you for your input so far, and I hope this conversation may develop.

With best wishes,


Robert

www.aroundNorth.wordpress.com

Robert

Thanks for taking time-out to elaborate - and I am relieved somewhat in what you say. First of all good luck with the artistic endeavour.

You really made me think and I can see great merit in a set of tools for education - also see room for using more audio in some of the existing anstronomical visualisation tools in productive astronomical work - particuarly in the context of spectra. Even with sighted people we can hear some things that correlate with some concept better than we can visually.

Forgive the length of the post - but you did trigger a brain storm.

[I have removed a calculation and statement which had a huge mathematical blunder - I had a number which was still in degrees but foolishly interpreted as milliarcsecs - apologies to anyone mislead - upshot is I had thought you could hear apparent angular diameter of a star in real-time and reasonable duration of transit - I don't now think so. Mark 10/8/10]

One can relate frequency of sound with altitude (higher up - higher the pitch)

Thinking of spectra - there are two ways to render these in my mind. One - they look awfully like ADSR sound envelopes in music synths. If you give higher pitch to blue end compared to red end you can play it as a sound envelope and - with a very few minutes of training you can hear and distinguish hot stars from cool stars.

Second way is to play the line spectra - no sound envelope. For emission spectra just map the frequencies of the lines to audio frequencies and play them concurrently. If absorption spectra just play the dark lines. Now you can hear the difference between stars of different composition - and there should be clear distinctions between star types.

Again with spectra - play a sequence repersenting a binary system - one should be able to hear the variability and visualise one star passing in front and then behind the other - just as well as we can look at the spectra.

Take photometric system we can render star entries in star catalogues and here the temperature difference (simpler and more readily available than spectra - but less information available - this is true even for sighted people)

The list goes on - one can take a region of sky and construct a Herzsprung-Russel diagram of the stars contained in it and rendered in same way as stars in an image or on a planetarium wall - but now we get to hear the relationships in age and temperature but in a spatial manner.

Robert - if you PM me an email address I'm quite happy to share any ideas that I have with you.


Mark