Star Machines – Vibrations of the Universe

Location
Edgbaston Campus
Dates
Saturday 8 June 2019 (14:00-17:00)
Contact

Please Register to attend The Green Heart Festival Opening Weekend


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WORKSHOP LEADERS: Professor William Chaplin and Juliet Robson
VENUE: The Green Heart Festival

Everything in the universe vibrates, from the smallest molecule to distant stars and yet the vast majority of frequencies are hidden from our senses. Conceptual artist Juliet Robson has been working with Professor Bill Chaplin and his research group on the overarching project “hertz”, to produce an interactive and novel artwork that allows an audience to hear, see and engage with the patterns of stars “singing”.

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This interactive audio-visual experience using our “Star Machines”, will bring to life the resonances of stars tens or even hundreds of light-years away. The pitches of the stars’ vibrations are raised to bring them into the audible range and the tones are then used to drive the resonances of a metal plate on which coloured sand is sprinkled. As the pitch is changed, so the sand is shifted by the plate’s resonant vibrations into beautiful ordered patterns. The experience is interactive; participants generate the patterns of real, observed stars, sprinkling the coloured sand and changing the tones.