oslepenikoncem

Briefly, we are worried about water, how we use and destroy it, how it is being reduced also in the arts to a theme, or project, or material. Around us we see the highlands drying out, agriculture neglecting and polluting it, people wasting it. Maybe a deeper understanding of water as a necessary environmental thing and a creative approach can make us care more in our daily life as well.

For years, we have been listening underwater to fish, insects, streams/waves, and more unidentifyable noises using hydrophones. When we were discussing how to make a new kind of soundboard based on new ecological and technological possibilities, one of the things that came to mind were the use of strings and their natural resonances in the light of environmental sensing. Strings that resonate with the chaotic waterstreams might provide interesting sounds and time-based variations. Combined with a low consumption but far reaching transmitter from remote areas to receivers for network distribution may open possibilities for spatial representations as well.

Below is a kind of travelogue through theory and practice, hypothesis and proof, failure and surprise.

In physics, a string resonating at its natural frequency, is calculated by the following formula:

Fundamental frequency (f)
Length (L) in meters
Tension (T) in Newton (1 Newton = 0.102 kg)
Linear Density (μ) or the mass per unit length of the string in kg/m
(simply weigh 1m string, like fishing wire would be approx. 0.005 kg/m)

One needs a kind of driving force, which in our case will be unknown and variable, provided by the water streams.
As an example, when using a 2m piano string weighing 0.01kg/m, with a 10N tension, one could hear 1580Hz (if my maths are right olala!)… and with a lighter string, lower…

Using only natural materials what are the basic principles for making the prototype:

• the right stick (wood, metal,…)
• the right string (piano, guitar, fishing wire, ukelele bass string, …)
• the right fixing on both ends to allow standing waves to occur
• the right flow rate and perpendular angle (90˚?) of the water stream are important to create oscillations in the string

If we get it right, the string will start to resonate with increasing amplitude and standing wave patterns will form along the string. Probably to us not visible underwater, normally one can see nodes (points of no motion) and antinodes (points of maximum motion) on the string.

A natural water stream is per definition unstable, so we will get only chaotic oscillations occuring. That might prove a difficulty and will probably require dynamical tuning of the string, increasing and decreasing its tension.