Music day on Art of Science November 4, 2009

Putting all of my eggs in one basket today and focusing on Music in all its scientific glory.

First up, news that songs will now appear on Google searches. Google announced last week the integration of playable songs into its search results yesterday, and is slowly rolling the feature out to U.S. searchers.  (You can test the search here for “U2 Beautiful Day.”)

“To an experienced online music listener, the feature seems a little bit random because Google is using both iLike (recently acquired by MySpace) and Rhapsody, and Pandora, each of which offers yet another experience–Rhapsody lets you play up to 25 songs per month for free, Imeem is best for finding unusual versions of popular songs (like live takes), and Pandora requires you to create a virtual radio station based on a particular artist or song, which can be useful for discovering other music you might like, but doesn’t give you an instant fix.”

For the average Internet user, however, this distinction doesn’t matter. What matters: when users go to Google to search for an artist’s name, song name, album name, or even a snippet of lyrics, they won’t just get random text links or YouTube videos. Instead, the first set of links will be to the audio recording itself–in many cases, the entire song.

Everybody knows that there’s free music available on the Internet, but most casual listeners don’t bother to find it. Now, the most-visited site on the Internet will put it right in front of their faces. As awareness spreads, it’ll be another nail in the coffin of traditional music media–why listen to the radio?–and a boon for the five companies who signed this deal with Google. Artists and record labels might also get a shot in the arm, as users discover new music for free and perhaps eventually buy a copy to keep.

Stay tuned for further developments of Google’s music search.

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Speaking of creating music, I also bring to you a profile of a great music/tech inventor who died 10 years ago this month.  In 1993, Leon Theremin dies in Moscow. The Russian-born inventor leaves behind a legacy that touches several technical and creative disciplines.

During his 97 years, Theremin left his indelible mark on the fields of science, radio and television broadcasting, espionage, electromagnetic circuitry design and, most famously, music.

The electronic instrument of his design which also bears his name — by all accounts the first electronic musical instrument — is notable for its whooping and sliding high-pitched squeal. The theremin has influenced popular music, classical music, television and film soundtracks, and the musical avant-garde.

Leon Theremin got started early. He first experimented with electronics and Tesla coils as a preteen. After a stint as a military radio engineer during World War I and the Russian Civil War, he went to work in 1920 with his academic mentor, experimental physicist Abram Fedorovich Ioffe, at the Physical Technical Institute in his hometown of St. Petersburg.

It was there he began to branch out, working with X-rays, high-frequency oscillators and gas-filled tubes. In one experiment, he attached a small speaker to a charged antenna and discovered that when he waved his hand in and out of the electrical field, the speaker emitted a tone. The pitch would change, rising as he moved his hand closer and dropping as he moved it farther away.

Harnessing his childhood training as a cellist, Theremin soon mastered a few simple melodies. He was able to play with a vibrato effect by quickly shaking his hand in the air, and he added a second antenna to his invention to control the master volume. He named it the “etherphone” in reference to its ghost-like, otherworldy timbre. But soon enough, everyone just began calling it the theremin.

His invention was mysterious-looking to begin with — just a simple wooden box with two antennas sticking out of it. But its funkiness was compounded by the fact that you never actually touched it. It was played by moving the hands closer to and farther away from the two antennas, giving the visual effect of the performer “playing the air.”

“I conceived of an instrument that would create sound without using any mechanical energy, like the conductor of an orchestra,” Theremin told musicologist Olivia Mattis in 1989. “The orchestra plays mechanically, using mechanical energy; the conductor just moves his hands, and his movements have an effect on the music artistry.”

The sound it produced — a whistle-like, unbroken buzz capable of connecting any two pitches with an inhuman glissando — was like nothing else.

Read the full story on Wired News

The Oldest Song in the World – Tribute November 2, 2009

Completely written By Z of GeekDad and pasted verbatim (WITH any helpful corrections made by me; I can’t help myself, I’m an editor):

I like to think that, of all the ways to express one’s unique brand of nerdery, we music geeks are an extra special breed. Whether you’re a rabid record collector or a burgeoning singer/songwriter or just a guy who can’t sleep until he knows his iPod has been properly charged and synced, you understand that music is more than mere entertainment. It is a primal force nearly as old as humankind itself. But where exactly did it all begin?

While every armchair musicologist has his own theory – mine, for example, closely follows the narrative of Mojo Nixon’s “The Story of One Chord” – it’s a question that can never truly be answered. We have, however, identified the oldest surviving complete musical composition in existence.

Known as the Seikilos epitaph, in reference to the discovery of its lyrics and musical notation engraved on an ancient tombstone, this work dates from between 200 BC and 100 AD. Yet, despite its somber moniker, the song itself is actually quite encouraging. An English translation might read:

As long as you live, shine,
Let nothing grieve you beyond measure.
For your life is short,
and time will claim its toll.

Older surviving fragments of musical works preserved on cuneiform tablets predate the epitaph by up to two millennia, but Seikilos’s song represents our earliest record of a full composition. It sort of puts the true scope of music in perspective. And it’ll also put relativity on your side when the kids start complaining about you listening to 80s New Wave on your next road trip.

DIY haunted house October 30, 2009

Skull #11 ('80s Metal), 2006. by Brian Dettmer. Photo: Andrew Huff via Flickr.

It’s not too late to get in the Halloween spirit!

Halloween is almost here (tomorrow), so it’s time to get your haunted house in gear. We’ve got some suggestions for freaking out the kids (and adults) in your neighborhood in our collection of articles below.

And remember, if you have extra tips for some gruesome, ghoulish mischief, log in and share your knowledge by contributing to the Wired wiki (or here on this blog in the comments).

Choose from the following options of frighteningly easy DIY (ha-ha, had to get a bad Halloween joke in there):

1 Make Fake Blood

2 Make Fake Smoke

3 Build a Giant Spider Web

4 Download Some Freaky Sounds

More at Wired

Biotech Performance Festival October 30, 2009

Albany, NY – The unique intersection of the worlds of art and science – including the impact of ever-evolving technologies on the emerging definition of humanity – will take center stage during the first-ever Biotech Performance Festival presented jointly by the University at Albany’s College of Nanoscale Science and Engineering (“CNSE”) and UAlbany’s Department of Theatre.

The performances, to be held October 30 through November 7 at UAlbany’s Performing Arts Center, will transform the theatrical stage into a laboratory and the role of a playwright into that of a researcher, courtesy of a 90-minute evening of plays that explore how technology is redrawing what constitutes the living and the mechanical, the generated and the engineered, the synthetic and the natural.

The theatrical stage offers a unique opportunity to raise a community’s awareness and understanding of the issues that surround the cutting-edge research that defines the 21^st century technological revolution. Five plays to be offered at each performance provide an outlet for a theatrical response to a world in which our perceptions of nature and culture have been greatly affected by new technologies – and provide a platform to investigate the technological revolution in our classrooms and communities.

Featured playwrights at the festival include Pulitzer Prize-winning author William Kennedy, executive director of the New York State Writers Institute at UAlbany, and Jackie Roberts, assistant professor of theatre at UAlbany and curator of the Biotech Performance Festival.

University at Albany President George M. Philip said, “This cross-campus, interdisciplinary collaboration combines the groundbreaking education and research of the College of Nanoscale Science and Engineering with the distinctive artistic expression of the Department of Theatre.  I applaud this exciting partnership and look forward to a performance that will be equal parts enlightening, educational and entertaining.”

CNSE Senior Vice President and Chief Executive Officer Dr. Alain E. Kaloyeros said, “The UAlbany NanoCollege is delighted to partner with the Department of Theatre to present the first-ever Biotech Performance Festival, which offers an exciting opportunity to explore the educational, cultural and societal impacts of the scientific revolution being driven by nanotechnology. As the 21^st century is increasingly shaped by the emergence of new and transformative technologies, this pioneering effort will promote further understanding of the growing connection between modern-day innovation and our humanity.”

Roberts said, “We are thrilled to present the Biotech Performance Festival in partnership with the College of Nanoscale Science and Engineering, which truly exemplifies the exciting world of modern-day scientific discovery and exploration. The collision of science with the performing arts gives us a chance to raise issues, promote dialogue and offer a bold perspective on our world as it is shaped by the emergence of new technologies. It should prove to be a unique and wonderful experience.”

Kennedy said, “The technology that is abroad in the land these days, and which is shaping a new reality for everybody, is indeed a wonder to many.  But it is also a grand mystification for just as many.  The Biotech Performance Festival opens up windows on how a few of these disparities might collide, how some people cope with them (or don’t) and what we might learn from the collision.”

In his play In the System, Kennedy tells the story of two small-time gamblers who embrace technology to make a killing at the racetrack. Roberts’ A Tale for Children is a modern-day mermaid story with a genetic twist. Other featured plays include It’s a Small, Small World by Alice Kauffman, in which a 15-year-old boy teaches his mother about nanotechnology; Stained Glass by Lindsay Price, which recounts the first human trial of a breakthrough cancer treatment; and the apocalyptic tale spawned by a mad scientist in The Second Coming by Rosanna Yamagiwa Alfaro.

Performances are scheduled for Friday and Saturday, October 30 and 31 at 8 pm; Sunday, November 1 at 2 pm; Wednesday-Friday, November 4-6 at 8 pm; and Saturday, November 7 at 2 pm. For more information, please visit http://www.albany.edu/theatre/biotechfestival.html.

Making the stairs fun October 16, 2009

An ad company is experimenting with ways to make exercise and “doing the right thing” fun! With art!

Maybe I’m a nerd, and even though this is being done by an ad agency, I just find this so inspiring – using technology to create interactive public art. Plus, it worked: putting sounds on the stairs (making the stairs fun) made 66% more people take the stairs!

Free Museum Day tomorrow September 25, 2009

September 26th is Annual Museum Day, and lots of museums and parks are offering free admission in celebration. Read on for more:

On Sept. 26, as part of the fifth annual Museum Day program, Smithsonian magazine has convinced more than 1,200 other museums, zoos, and arts and cultural attractions across the country to also welcome visitors for free.

In California, you’ll can use your Museum Day admission card to visit the classic cars displayed at the California Automobile Museum in Sacramento (regular adult admission: $8), in New York City you can use your pass at the South Street Seaport Museum (regular adult admission: $10), and in Dallas, your pass will get you into the Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza (regular admission: $13.50), which explores the assassination and legacy of President John F. Kennedy. 

To see the full list of all the participating museums so you can plan your day, visit the Smithsonian’s Museum Day 2009 Web site and poke around. Be ready to be a bit overwhelmed.

Tie with hidden ipod pocket September 24, 2009

Fashion keeps adapting itself to new technologies, and now even business-types can accomodate for their need for constant tunes.

From MAKE (he-he, tie-pod):

The company’s name is Pink–Thomas Pink, of London. And to be fair they are sold in eight colors. Pink gets €55 for one such “commuter tie” online, but if you are crafty or have a crafty friend it should be a fairly simple sew job.

Live music using 1s and 0s September 17, 2009

Live coders "jamming" together

I kid you not: writing coding to make music, in front of a live audience. Truly New Wave.

It might just be the most conceptually complex way of making music that modern man has yet devised. But that is the challenge of live coding – the process of writing computer code, in real time, to compose and play music or design animations.

“It’s not just a passive process, not just someone creating sounds, which is the problem with electronic music – because people don’t really see what it is that the musicians are doing,” says Dave Griffiths.

Dave is a live coder and a performer in a night of live coding held in a south London pub, organised by the collective Toplap.

“Live coding brings the audience closer; they can see that you’re making something in front of them,” he says.

The furious coding is also projected onto a screen for the audience, making the programming as much – or more – of the performance as the music it codes for.

If anything it should go wrong – and anyone who has ever done any programming will know how frequent this is – they get nothing out.

A crash. Epic fail.

Because the software that live coders use is designed for a compile-free, real-time use, the performers face this prospect much less often.

But it does happen, Dave tells me. “That’s what keeps it exciting,” he says.

Read more on BBC

Let music move you September 16, 2009

That may sound cheesy, but more and more research is finding out it is true!

From Mark Changizi at Scientific American:

Speech sounds alone, stripped of their meaning, don’t inspire. We don’t wake up to alarm clocks blaring German speech. We don’t drive to work listening to native spoken Eskimo, and then switch it to the Bushmen Click station during the commercials. Speech sounds don’t give us the chills, and they don’t make us cry – not even French.

But music does emanate from our alarm clocks in the morning, and fill our cars, and give us chills, and make us cry. According to a recent paper by Nidhya Logeswaran and Joydeep Bhattacharya from the University of London, music even affects how we see visual images. In the experiment, 30 subjects were presented with a series of happy or sad musical excerpts. After listening to the snippets, the subjects were shown a photograph of a face. Some people were shown a happy face – the person was smiling – while others were exposed to a sad or neutral facial expression. The participants were then asked to rate the emotional content of the face on a 7-point scale, where 1 mean extremely sad and 7 extremely happy.

The researchers found that music powerfully influenced the emotional ratings of the faces. Happy music made happy faces seem even happier while sad music exaggerated the melancholy of a frown.  A similar effect was also observed with neutral faces. The simple moral is that the emotions of music are “cross-modal,” and can easily spread from sensory system to another.

Read more at Scientific American.

Extradimensional theories of the universe as opera September 9, 2009

Lisa Randall recites her opera

Since writing a bestselling book on her fascinating and complex extra-dimensional theory of the universe, Harvard physicist Lisa Randall has been busy re-imagining it as an appropriately cerebral art form—opera. After three years of development, Hypermusic Prologue: A Projective Opera in Seven Planes premiered at Paris’s prestigious Centre Pompidou in June and, like Randall’s book Warped Passages: Unraveling the Mysteries of the Universe’s Hidden Dimensions [Buy], it manages to translate the impenetrable world of theoretical physics into something that not only appeals to scientists, but to anyone willing to look beyond the obvious for clues about the nature of reality.

Spanish composer Hèctor Parra, 33, first saw artistic potential in Randall’s ideas after reading Warped Passages, which uses plain language to describe how hidden dimensions may explain some of physics’ greatest quandaries—such as why the gravitational force is so weak. When the book was released in Europe in 2006, Parra met up with Randall in Berlin to ask her to write a libretto based on her work. Randall admits she was “a little uncomfortable focusing so much on the physics,” she says, because she didn’t want to alienate the audience. “But I did see that the exploration of an extra dimension could be very nice as a metaphor. It seemed exciting.”

As its title suggests, Hypermusic Prologue doesn’t simply make art out of hard-to-grasp scientific theory, it inverts and renovates the genre of opera with an experimental score, a two-person cast, and minimalist and abstract stage design. Randall asked artist Matthew Ritchie [Video], whose sculptures often reference inflationary universe theory, to design the sets. Ritchie also developed a series of video projections for the performance: The industrial imagery projected behind baritone James Bobby represents the lower four-dimensional universe while the soprano, Charlotte Ellett, is often surrounded by projections of wildly colored celestial shapes, suggesting the expanded reality of a fifth dimension.

Read the full article…