Voices of the Noosphere
January 10, 2005
Abstract for SPACE: SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY AND THE ARTS: THE 7TH WORKSHOP ON SPACE AND THE ARTS May 2004 (http://www.congrex.nl/04c20/)
VOICES FROM THE NOOSPHERE
Voices from the Noosphere is a sonic sculpture intended both for appreciation by human audition, and for interstellar transmission across electromagnetic frequencies. The source material for Voices from the Noosphere is derived from the radio signals of cosmic phenomena such as pulsars or solar flare activity. At the compositional core of the project are code components written in cSound that extract envelope information from the radio signal sources. This envelope data can be used as a base for physical modeling of new sounds, related to the original but undergoing progressive sequence of morphing. This new material plays as counterpoint to the source, creating a polyphony of human and interstellar gestures.
Once complete, the two distinct but related voices can be transduced into electromagnetic frequency. This process is to reflect the relationship between frequency, duration and amplitude, shaping the body of an actual transmission. The outbound signal is not a carrier with frequency modulation encoding data. Rather, Voices from the Noosphere is a silent recreation of our audible constructs.
The heavens have inspired music for as long as homo sapiens has made note of the powerful resonance between our body, our environment, and the sounds created by each. The aboriginal didgeridoo is used to contemplate Dreamtime, a place modern science is cautiously approaching through quantum physics. Medieval European theorists posited the Music of the Spheres as a mode for creation. Into this new millennium, composer Terry riley and the Kronos Quartet have incorporated NASA recordings of space artifacts into recent performances.
Voices from the Noosphere lies within this tradition of exploration, contemplation and representation.
The representation of electromagnetic frequency in the sonic spectrum is not unusual: recent results of helioseismography (http://www.spaceweather.com/glossary/farside.html ) have been transduced into audible spectrum. Indeed, the lowest sound wave has been identified - as a b flat - , suggesting that although sound will not travel through the vacuum of space, our universe resonates with meaning ( http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/3096776.stm ).
A future phase of the project will be to allow for this process – in code and in performance – to occur in real time. This envisions a scenario in which received radio signals – perhaps from solar flare activity – are incorporated into a sonic configuration that is then re-transmitted as a companion signal to the original stellar event.
The concept of the Noosphere incorporates all mindful, reflective and expressive gestures of intelligence that accrete around the Gaian substrate. The Noosphere includes all terrestrial voices if intelligence – Homo sapiens and others. With the development of broadcast technology, the web of our expression now extends to space. This project allows for a gesture of intent and beauty to be raised as counterpoint that is reflective of a human response to the cosmos.