Levin introduced us to a lot of interesting projects and possibilities, but the ones that caught my attention most immediately were those which dealt with sonic visualization. Sure, we have waveforms and oscilloscopes and whatnot, but I’m talking low-tech, real-world physical objects here. I was very interested in the Reuben’s Tube, being a vaguely fire-obsessed chap myself.
So I did a little digging and found this dude: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2awbKQ2DLRE
There’s a little group o’ folks in Denmark who’re teaching children about physics through cute little visualizations, and this one caught my eye. It’s a Reuben’s Plane, I guess; it’s interesting in that the flames make a sort of pixel art pattern, almost akin to the cymatic plate experiments. I love the idea of physical representations of sound and the ways in which sound can influence the physical environment. I like the concept of making the invisible, visible through its interactions with the visible world. I’ve also recently become very interested in the interdisciplinarity of music and sound art. There are so many out-there projects one can produce if he just knows a little about physics or…fire. Music is a lovely medium because anything can become a piece of the pie: field recordings, fire, physics, fire, biology, or even fire!