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21 musical swings; each swing in motion triggers different notes, all the swings together compose a piece, but some sounds only emerge from cooperation.

During experiments on the giant axons of the Longfin Inshore Squid (loligo pealei) at the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, MA; we were fascinated by the fast color-changing nature of the squid’s skin. Squids (like many other cephalopods) can quickly control pigmented cells called chromatophores to reflect light. The Longfin Inshore has 3 different chromatophore colors: Brown, Red, and Yellow. Each chromatophore has tiny muscles along the circumference of the cell that can contract to reveal the pigment underneath.

We tested our cockroach leg stimulus protocol on the squid’s chromatophores. We used a suction electrode to attach to the squid’s fin nerve, then connected the electrode to an iPod nano as our stimulator. The results were both interesting and beautiful. The video below is a view through an 8x microscope zoomed in on the dorsal side of the fin.

A Wall That Plays Music When It Rains: KUNSTHOFPASSAGE FUNNEL WALL

Video of it in action

Cymatic experiment: sound waves + sand

Ode to the Brain! by Symphony of Science: Carl Sagan, Robert Winston, Vilayanur Ramachandran, Jill Bolte Taylor, Bill Nye, and Oliver Sacks

Spike Jonze Presents: Lil Buck and Yo-Yo Ma

Gnarls Barkley: Run

Shit gets real around 2:10.
 

Roots of Breakdance (Run DMC - It’s Like That)

Peter Bjorn and John - Nothing to Worry About

Sorry I’m Late, by Tomas Mankovsky. Shot with a camera on the ceiling. 

Rymdreglage: 8-bit trip

Humanthesizer: Music played using human bodies painted with electrically conducive ink. Shame about the song…

Double Dub, by Tramaine Desenna

Tabletop Terrain

Table made from sound recordings taken from the streets of Cairo. “The acoustically-inspired topography fills the underside of the table, which meets flush and perfectly with the base (where Dendra has carved the exact opposite surface). It is the silence, so to speak, for the other surface’s noise.”