Of course, solar sounds have been featured on BLDGBLOG before; in Podcasting the sun, for instance, we looked into whether the sun is "ringing like a bell" or "clapping," and the answer seems to be both – only adding to the sun's repertoire of instrumental metaphors.
In any case, I was actually reminded of the "sea organ" in Zadar, Croatia, when I first heard of the sun's coronal symphonies.
"Spring 2005 saw Zadar gain something absolutely unique," we read; that "something" was "the world’s first pipe organ that’s played by the sea."
The sea organ is appropriately named, then, as the natural motion of the sea "pushes air through" 35 pipes on the coastal edge of the city; at that point, "depending on the size and velocity of the wave," the residents of Zadar can sit back and listen as "chords are played."
So could you attach an organ like that to the sun...? That would play continuous solar music and sidereal sounds, reverberating over continents, everyday?
A kind of sky piano that rips and roars and shines atonally in chords across the Earth's magnetosphere? And if you stood at the edge of an Alaskan forest, with your antenna pointed up into the sky, headphones on, tuned into that solar presence, entranced, would you hear this? Thus literalizing the BBC's metaphor?
If so, would Jacques Derrida be proud?
(Note: More sunscapes at Pruned. Zadar sea organ found via the Kircher Society. Ethereal piano MP3, linked at the end of this post, by Myke Weiskopf and his newly revived audio resource ShortWaveMusic).
No comments:
Post a Comment