Wavelength
Rob Collins, Mathematics
Project Website: Wavelength
Waves come in all sizes, from Radio Waves of several feet in length, to Gamma Rays, perceptible only to scientific equipment, between those extremes on this continuum are the waves of visible light. Similar to these electromagnetic waves, the pressure waves of sound also come in many different lengths. Composer/Theorists such as Joseph Schillinger, Henry Cowell and Karlheinz Stockhausen have all written on the specific properties of streams of sonic impulses. When events are accelerated beyond approximately 20 per second, they begin to lose their rhythmic identity and morph into what we humans perceive as “pitch.” This transformation occurs even though the only parameter of the sound stream to change is their frequency of onset. This project explores possible dialogues across the boundary between light and sound, art and music, in the spaces between performers.
