JuneeDATs06 = Alan Lamb & Dave Noyze

juneedat06.m4a : The Wires (57MB!)

Alan Lamb & Dave Noyze

Noyzelab research has extended into real world complex systems, focusing on large scale bio-physical acoustic instruments with Dr. Alan Lamb, a pioneer in this field. In computer science (and science in general) a new paradigm called complex systems is enabling powerful insights into previously uncharted territories of natural systems. Lamb’s “Wire Instrument” is a classic example of a physically based real world complex system, made from spans of wire stretching between 70 and 300 metres, sometimes in spans of up to a kilometre or more across the landscape. This work is extending and documenting, in participation with Lamb, the details of his independent 30 year research on constructing these instruments, which are not of a domestic scale, for the purpose of artistic and scientific investigation.

Over the years Lamb’s work with The Wires has uncovered that it is not only wind that plays this instrument, but on their own accord they often harmonically sing, vibrate or roar as they react to environmental factors such as barometric air pressure, temperature, insects and people; creating a unique and infinite instrumentation of itself and its natural surroundings. A neuroscientist and medical practitioner, Lamb has stated that The Wires underlying principles show commonalities with biological systems such as embryonic body plans and brain function. Lamb has stated also that the system has the ability to manipulate biological cellular activity, providing a potential for medical contexts. Lamb’s wire instrument generates audible, subsonic and supersonic frequencies, with dynamic range extending from the lightness of a walking fly through to extremely loud sounds. Historically, a large amount of important information in science and mathematics was derived from the problem of the vibrating string and Lamb’s wire instrument has the potential to provide fundamental insights for complex systems.

Part of The Wires set up in rural NSW, Australia.

In recent years Lamb has expressed a need and desire to further expand The Wires through new practices. A key aspect of work will be to create an open ended technology to use The Wires as a control/data source in future experiments. The technology used to convert The Wires into a control source will thus have wider implications and be generally applicable to other artistic/scientific fields; e.g. controlling musical instruments, processing sounds, providing empirical data for scientific modelling of The Wires and contributing to Lamb’s methodology for recording techniques. Cellular Automata have been used for computer modelling of biological pigmentation patterns, forest fires, viral epidemics, and a wide variety of other natural systems, and have much in common with Alan's instrument. Complex systems can therefore contribute greatly towards gaining a deeper understanding of The Wires and vice versa.

Part of Noyze's analogue modular setup (Hewlett Packard 16 channel Logic Analyser, Noyzelab Ulamizer-II, Hinton Instruments Music Lab Modular, Racal Dana Universal Counter Timer, Roland System 100M).

Music Notes : Two of Alan's DAT's of the Pindari Wires. Digitised by Dave Noyze and Alan Lamb at Junee caravan park during unsound06 residency for wagga space program at about 3am on the last night in Junee (much to the caravan park's annoyance)... further edited and analogue modular processed from about 2 hours of source material by Noyze 2007/8.

For a more in depth description of The Wire instrument see chapter 14 : John Jenkins, "22 Contemporary Australian Composers" NMA Publications Melbourne 1988 p112-4. The following text from that chapter is reproduced with permission, and is a brief explanation of The Wires as told by Alan :

"The principals of aeolian vibration are relatively easy to understand, although there is as yet no satisfactory mathematical description, owing to the emergence of complex functions resulting from neighborhood interactions along the length of the wire. These are also responsible for the great diversity and complexity of harmony, timbre and rhythm.

"To understand the physics, it is best to think of the wire as an elongated cylinder. Anyone who has observed the ripples around a vertical stick held in a running stream of water will understand that a cylinder placed transversely in a laminar fluid current sets up an upstream standing wave which is transmitted to the cylinder as a vibration. The wavelength and frequency of the standing wave are determined by the diameter of the cylinder, and by the current velocity. Turbulence prevents the formation of standing waves. The same principle applies to wires vibrating in wind; hence some types of wind do not produce singing (for example, ones that are thermally generated). The standing waves are not sine waves but complex, being composed of a fundamental combined with a harmonic series. Thus the standing wave is a harmonic complex some of whose Fourier frequencies will resonate with natural frequencies of the wire and cause it to vibrate in a distinctly harmonic pattern. The natural frequencies of the wire are determined by the integer harmonics of the fundamental. In very long wires such as telephone wires, which are also very thick (three millimeters), the fundamental is well below one Hertz (1 Hz). Thus only the higher harmonic frequencies fall in to the auditory range. The very high harmonics (for example 250 Hz and above) become so crowded they cease to have discrete frequencies but rather tend to beat together, creating second-order frequencies of lower pitch. In effect the relationships to the fundamental are lost and it becomes more useful to consider the length of the wire as a family of interacting segments each with its own fundamental within the auditory range. This leads to an understanding of the choir-like quality of wire music (such as in the Angels' Choir section of Sky Song) in which the sound is made up of numerous `voices', each competing for harmonic dominance.

"Dominant harmonic patterns become established by the combination of segments into coherent `eigenvalue' frequencies (that is, possible frequencies under a given set of conditions of wind and wire) which give rise to great crescendos up to 120 decibels or more in dynamic range. Conversely, as coherence is lost following wind shifts and tension changes (as mentioned below), decrescendos are heard while new coherent patterns start to emerge. The same principles are in operation to produce high-order low-frequency beats which generate an equivalent complexity of rhythm and pulsation. It is of great interest to me as a biological scientist that these principles have much in common conceptually with those underlying the generation of coherent patterns in biological systems (for example, in the development of the body plan of the embryo and in the function of the brain). This, one assumes, is why wire music sounds organic, and perhaps why it resonates so deeply with one's emotional being. Similar principles are to be found in many other natural systems, and it is probably not too far-fetched to suggest that wire music is an aural embodiment of some of the most fundamental dynamic laws of the universe.

"In the classical physics of vibrating strings, tension is of paramount importance to the frequency of vibration. However, in the case of very long wires, the static tension has little effect on the pitch. This can be traced to the observation that the very high harmonics are not distinctly related to the fundamental, but rather are closely correlated with wind speed and wire diameter. Nevertheless, during changes of tension there is a short period when the established harmonic complex is transposed by the same ratio as the fundamental, but since the new frequencies no longer belong to the eigenvalue set of the wind/wire system, it does not continue to sing at the new pitch, but rather the complex is replaced by the former pitches building up again from zero. The musical effect of these transitions is quite extraordinary and probably has no parallel in any other musical instrument including computer-activated ensembles.

"Tension changes can, with practice, be used to create all kinds of musical effects at will (such as those which produce the climax of Last Anzac), or to produce the subtlest changes of timbre as, for example, in the long floating notes (E and F) in Mirages. Rhythmic tension changes can also be used, and these give rise to a whole new order of rhythmic percussive effects as, for example, in the opening section of Night Passage, when a climax sounds in B. An interesting tension effect can also be heard when the sun is obscured by fast- moving clouds, causing temperature-dependent changes in tension.

"A number of factors related to the physics make recording wire music a major technological challenge. Notably, the frequencies generated range from the subsonic (less than 20 Hz) to the supersonic (more than 20 KHz) and the dynamic range extends from the sound of a walking fly to amplitudes exceeding the diameter of the wire (approximately 120 to 130 dB range).

"There is not space to describe recording techniques in detail. I use ceramic piezo-electric elements from record player cartridges and fix them directly onto the wires. The method of fixing them is an art in itself and there is no single best met hod. Rather, different conditions require different methods, which are established by trial and error. The object is to obtain a satisfactory frequency response right across the auditory spectrum, and this usually requires one or more stages of filtering, equalisation and amplification before the signal is fed into the tape recorder. The ceramic elements are very small and do not appreciably affect the wire's vibration, nor do they present a large profile to the wind, thus wind interference is kept to a minimum.

"The placement of the elements is very important, as is clear from a further look at the physics. The vibrations of most interest are generated in the transverse plane of the wire. These are not simply `back and forth' vibrations but planar ones characteristically describing circles, elipses and higher order paths which can be reduced to two vectors in the orthogonal transverse axes. Thus two elements placed at right angles around the circumference of the wire will transduce each vector more or less independently. When the output of each is sent to the right and left ears the sounds are perceived as being generated along the right-left axis, in the same way as stereo music from audio equipment. However, with the vibrating wire, it is possible to go further. By separating the elements about a meter along the length of the wire, the phase separations of the longitudinal component of the vibrations can be detected and these are perceived along a depth axis; that is, near to far. Other more subtle effects also contribute to an illusion of depth and height. Thus, by placing the elements correctly, it is possible to generate a three-dimensional stereo-acoustic image of such fidelity that the music sounds as if it is filling the greatest of concert halls ."

Selection of pictures taken at unsound04 (courtesy of Sarah Last) :