Tech | March 18, 2010 | 10 comments

Earthquakes Generate Music in Realtime

kamoni
Tectonic is a sound sculpture created in real time by earthquakes as they occur across the globe. A tightly integrated system between Max/MSP, Google Earth and Ableton Live processes a stream of real-time data that is translated into synthesis and sample playback parameters.
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    Tech,   Music,   Art and Style,   Technology
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    Music,  Earthquake,  Sculpture,  Earthquakes,  9 more
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10 comments // Earthquakes Generate Music in Realtime // Video

  • titan50
  • _dg
  • lastef
    • 0
      lastef  

    • @indecisiveh: As with many creative things the process of creating the final product is often the creative part but not necessarily the product in itself. But then one can say that this is fairly creative performance reminding you how the tectonic plates behave and how you "feel" an earthquake. As I have experienced some of them they are very different. For me a sound based on the earthquake data is very interesting as some of the earthquakes make a strange humming sound.

      When it comes to computers and the technology behind them, almost everything is simply data converted to something. Or something converted to data if you want. You can do it in a creative way, or not.

      I find this project very creative, the concept, the thought and the final product. It links me to the movement of the earth with sounds with a little help from a computer;-)

    • 1 year ago
  • indecisiveh
    • 0
      indecisiveh  
    • lastef:

      But who created this music this man or the earthquakes? I would say that this is a creative venture on HIS part not on the part of the earthquakes.

      I wanted to make the point that creation implies consciousness. That's why I brought up the creation v generation.

      By no means am I saying that this isn't creative, I just have hard time thinking of an earthquake as conscious let alone creative.

      I love the whole article, I just got stuck on this one line:

      "created in real time by earthquakes"

    • 1 year ago
  • indecisiveh
    • 0
      indecisiveh  

    • No offense but I am really starting to take issue with people saying that stuff like this creates music. The headline said the word generate, which is more accurate. The truth is the software creates the music and you have to program the sound so to respond to earthquakes well. The result is collected scientific data being coded into a music form. Far from creation, this is simply data converted into sound.

      I refer back to an article on current where they supposedly used the vibration of nature to "create music". All I hear is raw sound generated by raw data. You may be able to stretch the word creating but it implies that the finish product was created by the earthquakes.

      That being said it's really cool and I would venture it should be called earth-bending(similar to circuit bending)

    • 1 year ago
  • AdileneAdrenaline
  • lastef
  • hoosierdaddy
  • CalgarC
  • EmperorThan
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