Nature Plays: Variable 4

Something for all the Max MSP heads. And people who like noisy days out in the country.

“Variable 4 transforms these weather patterns into a living musical composition with the same unpredictability as the elements themselves. Using meteorological sensors connected to a custom software environment developed by the artists, the wild weather conditions of the Kent coastland act as composer, navigating through a map of 24 specifically written movements. Every aspect of the piece, from broad harmonic progressions down to individual notes and timbres, is influenced by changes in the environment: wind speed, rainfall, solar radiation, humidity, tropospheric variance, temperature, and more.

Linking together the sensor data and scored motifs is an array of algorithmic processes drawn from the natural world, modelling phenomena such as tree growth, swarm theory and evolutionary development. The resultant composition is performed over a 24 hour duration through a field of 8 speakers integrated into the landscape.”

Sounds amazing. It’s taking place on the Dungeness headland between midday May 22nd to midday May 23rd 2010 on the headland of Dungeness and it’s free to visit. Also expect to see some kind of installation from the people behind Variable 4 at a London gallery in the near future.