Dreamtime research – time analysis of a mosquito

27 Aug 2010 02.16

I spent some time at our family’s cottage in Lapland this summer. One night I had an interesting dream. I don’t remember anymore was it me or someone else who played didgeridoo, but it was very realistic experience of the sound of the instrument. It was quite loud actually, and soon I woke up but the sound continued… It was at higher pitch and quickly I realized it was the sound of a mosquito, flying towards my right ear.

The mosquito was dead after a few definitive hand claps. The episode got me thinking about the difference in the pace of perception between being awake and dreaming. Could an analysis be made by comparing the sound of a didgeridoo and a mosquito?

What’s the frequency of the mosquito buzz? Here are the results from Google search about the frequency of the mosquito wings.

The frequencies given range from about 250 hz to 1000hz. But do the mosquitos around the world have the same pitch? I also wanted to have as a reference the same kind of mosquito that I had experienced. I didn’t have any recording of a mosquito available, so I headed to freesound.org. User Dobroide has provided a sample of a mosquito that sounded perfect. I don’t know where in the world that mosquito had flown, but it definitely had a sibling in Lapland (sorry about the loss).

After a bit filtering the sample sounds like this:

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The fundamental frequency of that mosquito is 341 Hz, or about the note F (real musical F is 349 Hz). The harmonics are definitive and visible until 2727 Hz. I already had in my collection a great sample of a didgeridoo, a slow drone in the key of D by Anton, so I brought that up. When I analyzed the spectrum of the didge I noticed that it was actually tuned to C# than to D.

I can’t be sure that the didge in my dreams was tuned exactly to the sound of the mosquito, but it’s highly probable that the sounds were in tune. At least the continuation from the didge to the mosquito didn’t sound like the sounds would have been off-key. The mosquito was the source, so I changed the tune of the didge to match that of the mosquito.

Here’s the didge after the transformation. The fundamental frequency is now about 85 Hz. That’s 341 Hz divided by four, the real F is 87 Hz.

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The mosquito and didge are now perfectly in tune:

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How would the mosquito sound if it was lowered to same fundamental frequency as the didge? Here’s the answer:

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And how would the didge sound as a mosquito?

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The mosquitos change the fundamental frequency of their wings to match with the possible mate, so it might actually be possible to play with mosquitos by using a high pitched didgeridoo sounds as the material. That could be possible with a normal didge too, if mosquitos sense the higher harmonics of its sound.

It can now be concluded that in my dream the sound of the mosquito was lowered two musical octaves, or four times in Hz. Is that the difference between being awake and dreaming? Using my subjective experience as a sample it is, and at least on this one occasion. It would mean that in the dream the perceptions were four times more intense -  the sampling frequency was four times higher (or lower?). This is probably related to the EEG frequencies of being awake and of the REM stage.

Most likely the sound of the mosquito happened to be in tune with the frequency of my brainwaves at the time, but the mating ended most tragically.

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Categories: observation • sound research

Light controlled

18 Aug 2010 22.01

Light controlled ambient piece – recording of an intuitive musical performance.

The ambient piece acted as the musical introduction to an open discussion between photographer Victoria Schultz,  psychoanalyst Heikki Majava and a sound explorer. The topic of the discussion was My Body and I – Synchronic Image, Vision and Sound. The discussion was held on August 13th.

The pitches of the piece were controlled with light dependent resistors. I had built two simple enclosures for the resistors, which I held in my hands. In a slow dance I moved about and explored the light and dark areas of the gallery, Laterna Magica, where the event was held.

Victoria’s photos were on display in the gallery, and I thought that light controlled music would bridge the media and weave the topic together. I had built a light controlled audio device a few years ago, which was perfect for the idea.

It has two oscillators, which can be independently controlled. I connected the stereo out of the device to a laptop, in which a modular sound processing software turned the pitches of the oscillators into synthesizer control messages. The other channel was used for texture and the other had more soloish character.

I wasn’t able to control the sound as much as I desired. In the possible future performances I will use the signal difference between the two resistors as the source of modulation. The difference can be explored via complex mathematical equations or logic analysis for example.

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Categories: news • sound research

Spectralized atmosphere

03 Aug 2010 14.35

The set from last Sunday is now available for download and listening on archive.org. The set took place at a compact sound art festival, which was held on an island.  The soundscape of the island was turned into synthesizer control messages by using Plogue Bidule modular sound processing software. The software analyzed the spectrum of the soundscape and picked frequencies from it at a certain tempo. The frequencies were then turned into MIDI note information. The notes were replayed by software and hardware synthesizers. The performance was an application of spectral music technique.

Link to the original image on Flickr: Harakka island by rmrzI had no role in selecting the notes, and I’m glad I’ve found a way to further diminish my role in the process. I’m exploring the possibilities of working with the frequencies rather than  just 12 note harmonic system. I’m planning to set up a system that would create the intervals automatically from the spectrum. The system would sample dominant frequencies of any material and create an octave using the sampled frequencies as the base. The number and logic of octave divisions could be separately determined.

The island is called Harakka (Magpie). Harakka is inhabitated by birds and most of the smallish island is preserved. The premises were originally build for Finnish army, and the place was used to design and study explosives and related chemistry. The buildings, tunnels and bunkers are now in the use of artists.

The set was performed in the tight wooden auditorium of the main building, which was built in 1929. It’s kind of a place where students and colleagues could have been witnessing the latest achievements of science. In this case a sound surgery took place.

A thirty minutes exploration into the sound of an island.

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Categories: news • sound research

immersing in the atmosphere at a compact art festival held on an island

01 Aug 2010 16.37

event name: ritornello 2
event location: helsinki
the set: http://www.archive.org/details/srn2010-07-24

Categories: Event