Ideas in physics used for creating art

[dariushde]

Summary:: I'm looking for physical models/phenomena that can be replicated in the art of creating sound/music.

Hey everyone,

I'm an experimental music composer/researcher who just got addicted to watching Youtube videos on quantum physics. The entire field absolutely fascinates me now. The first idea that blew my mind and made me see the relation between these ideas and music was "Wave-particle duality." As you might know, experimental sound designers often synthesize new sounds by designing the waveform from scratch (wavetable synthesis).
I'm looking for ideas that can be translated to musical parameters such as sound, form, spatial design and so on. What do I mean by this? Let me give you some examples:

1) Interesting probability distribution behavior that can be translated into sound waveforms and translated to music
2) peculiar movement in particles/atoms/etc. that can be translated into the sound's position in space (moving left/right/front/back)
3) formal musical elements that can be modeled after a natural phenomena (as an example: density of a musical phrase in terms of energy can be modeled after element x in the universe/atomic behavior/etc.)

I understand there can be hundreds of ways I can pose this question, but hopefully you get the idea! I would highly appreciate your input and ideas and I'll post my musical findings in this forum as time goes on.

Looking forward to reading your ideas.

 

[Klystron]

David Hykes and the Harmonic Choir use electronics, acoustics, human vocals and percussion instruments to interpret physical phenomena such as electromagnetic radiation from the Sun into pleasing music.

As a visual artist/hobbyist in acrylic paints I borrow from geography to produce 'seascapes' and from astronomy to invent fanciful 'spacescapes'; the latter often depicting comets within our solar system.

 

[dariushde]

David Hykes and the Harmonic Choir use electronics, acoustics, human vocals and percussion instruments to interpret physical phenomena such as electromagnetic radiation from the Sun into pleasing music.

As a visual artist/hobbyist in acrylic paints I borrow from geography to produce 'seascapes' and from astronomy to invent fanciful 'spacescapes'; the latter often depicting comets within our solar system.

Thank you for your great reply. What I'm looking for involves a more direct relationship with physics/astronomy. Let's say we have the following distribution table:

Well, one way of thinking of this musically is translating the probability waveforms into audio waveforms and designing a sound with it. This'll create a direct connection between a physical observation and a musical sound... Does that make sense? This is just one example, of course. I'm just not well versed enough in this topic to think of other ways these ideas can be translated into music in some way shape or form, and not only just sound (as I said before, maybe the ideas can be applied to the length of a musical section, a phrase or something else).

 

[Borek]

You are only limited by your creativity - but then whatever will be produced won't have much to do with the original physics, just like Holst's Neptune has nothing to do with planet itself.

 

[dariushde]

You are only limited by your creativity - but then whatever will be produced won't have much to do with the original physics, just like Holst's Neptune has nothing to do with planet itself.

Obviously I understand that the resulting sound won't have anything to do with physics; but there will be an abstract connection between the sounds created and physics. It is arbitrary, but so is everything else in life; therefore I don't buy that argument.

I'm simply looking for some inspiration in the field of physics for my work of art. In my world these inspirations give meaning to the work of art. Thank you for your comment though.

 

[robphy]

• From ,
  someone provided those links
  
  On a Desmos file, e.g., the first one from above ( https://www.desmos.com/calculator/qpbn2mytbu )
  click on the graph of one function.
  Alt-T or option-T brings up a menu
  "Hear Graph"
  
  
• https://www.soundsofspacetime.org/ (Montclair State U)
  "Our purpose is to explore the physics of gravitational waves via an analogy to audible sounds."
  
  
• https://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/2020/sonify/
  
  
• Look at the "Light" (Brightness) feature in https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/ai/seeing-ai
  
  
• Maybe you can play with something like
  https://tympanus.net/codrops/2019/09/06/how-to-create-a-webcam-audio-visualizer-with-three-js/ (I didn't get it to work with my laptop)
  
  
• 
  
  
• 
  
  
  
• Can one use a webcam and some software to decode the sounds that are producing this pattern?
  
  
  
  
• Sort of the reverse of what you are asking
  
  
  
• 
  
  

 

[Klystron]

Without knowing your media of expression assume sound/music in your original post limits outputs to the normal range of human hearing. In a minimal form you could sample a waveform then translate the wavelengths into the audible spectrum. The directors of the movie "Contact" apply a similar method to translate radio wavelengths into audio so that the blind astrophysicist can listen/see the alien signal.

You could locate physical phenomena such as the recent Pacific Island volcanic eruption that emit detectable sound waves then weave samples into your musical composition. This updating Washington Post article emphasizes visual evidence of the eruption such as photographs from orbit but many other measurements including seismographs and sound recordings are available from many sources including Physics Forums.
https://www.physicsforums.com/threa...tonga-hunga-ha-apai-volcano-eruption.1011299/

Some science articles refer to numerous lightning strikes instigated by volcanic debris blown high into the atmosphere. Imagine the thunder resulting from that lightning synthesized via electronic or real drumskins. Walt Disney interpreted volcanic eruptions mixed with his memories of WWI cannon fire in the soundtrack to "Fantasia".

The PF electronic engineering subforum contains several threads on designing circuits that generate audio signals from a variety of sources including Moog synthesizers, theremins, ring modulators and electronic musical instruments. This thread describes several musical albums using Moog's technology. That same forum contains comparisons of musical and mathematical forms.

Consider also expressing probability distributions and mathematical sequences as extended intervals between sounds and as signal modifications such as phase shifts, phase modulation, reverb, fuzz and similar distortion.

 

[dariushde]

• From ,
  someone provided those links
  
  On a Desmos file, e.g., the first one from above ( https://www.desmos.com/calculator/qpbn2mytbu )
  click on the graph of one function.
  Alt-T or option-T brings up a menu
  "Hear Graph"
  
  
• https://www.soundsofspacetime.org/ (Montclair State U)
  "Our purpose is to explore the physics of gravitational waves via an analogy to audible sounds."
  
  
• https://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/2020/sonify/
  
  
• Look at the "Light" (Brightness) feature in https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/ai/seeing-ai
  
  
• Maybe you can play with something like
  https://tympanus.net/codrops/2019/09/06/how-to-create-a-webcam-audio-visualizer-with-three-js/ (I didn't get it to work with my laptop)
  
  
• 
  
  
• 
  
  
  
• Can one use a webcam and some software to decode the sounds that are producing this pattern?
  
  
  
  
• Sort of the reverse of what you are asking
  
  
  
• 
  

This is such a detailed and wonderful response, I really appreciate it. Thank you.

 

[dariushde]

Without knowing your media of expression assume sound/music in your original post limits outputs to the normal range of human hearing. In a minimal form you could sample a waveform then translate the wavelengths into the audible spectrum. The directors of the movie "Contact" apply a similar method to translate radio wavelengths into audio so that the blind astrophysicist can listen/see the alien signal.

You could locate physical phenomena such as the recent Pacific Island volcanic eruption that emit detectable sound waves then weave samples into your musical composition. This updating Washington Post article emphasizes visual evidence of the eruption such as photographs from orbit but many other measurements including seismographs and sound recordings are available from many sources including Physics Forums.
https://www.physicsforums.com/threa...tonga-hunga-ha-apai-volcano-eruption.1011299/

Some science articles refer to numerous lightning strikes instigated by volcanic debris blown high into the atmosphere. Imagine the thunder resulting from that lightning synthesized via electronic or real drumskins. Walt Disney interpreted volcanic eruptions mixed with his memories of WWI cannon fire in the soundtrack to "Fantasia".

The PF electronic engineering subforum contains several threads on designing circuits that generate audio signals from a variety of sources including Moog synthesizers, theremins, ring modulators and electronic musical instruments. This thread describes several musical albums using Moog's technology. That same forum contains comparisons of musical and mathematical forms.

Consider also expressing probability distributions and mathematical sequences as extended intervals between sounds and as signal modifications such as phase shifts, phase modulation, reverb, fuzz and similar distortion.

Fantastic. Thank you! Probability distributions are definitely something that can be translated into sound and musical form successfully. Could you please point me towards an article/book that contains a healthy amount of probability distributions for me to model after? Thanks again for your response.

 

[Klystron]

Fantastic. Thank you! Probability distributions are definitely something that can be translated into sound and musical form successfully. Could you please point me towards an article/book that contains a healthy amount of probability distributions for me to model after? Thanks again for your response.

Glad you found value in the responses. Sorry that my favorite math textbooks are way out of date.

Suggest you ask for textbook and educational video suggestions in the Science Education and/or Mathematics forums. Pulldown the 'Forums' button on top. State your current level of math knowledge -- algebra, statistics, calculus, etc. -- your objectives, such as "develop statistical models for writing music", and a brief overview of your (non-homework) applications.

Amazon contains a plethora of math textbooks. I used keywords 'statistics', 'probability', 'finite mathematics' and 'discrete mathematics' textbooks. Probability distributions are explained in most undergraduate mathematics textbooks.

PF has other forums apropos to your applications including 'Art, Music, History and Linguistics' and 'Set Theory, Logic, Probability and Statistics' depending on your education and interests. Many members teach mathematics, some are also advanced musicians. Try searching (button on right side) for threads of interest and look beneath responses for lists of related threads (see below).

 

[DennisN]

I'm an experimental music composer/researcher who just got addicted to watching Youtube videos on quantum physics. The entire field absolutely fascinates me now.

Then I think you would like this video a lot:
(the uncertainty principle in quantum physics demonstrated with the help of a sound of a guitar)

The Uncertainty Principle and Waves - Sixty Symbols​

I also remember that many years ago I stumbled upon a sound/music software effect that was allegedly based on some quantum physics, weirdly enough. I'll see if I can find it online, and post here if I find it.

Edit: I found it, but it was not a standalone effect, but impulses for convolution reverbs:
(it seems the impulses are not downloadable, but there are some samples on the page)

The Quantum Hall Effects - impulse responses from nanospace for convolution reverb
https://www.dubbhism.org/2008/11/quantum-hall-effects-impulse-responses.html