{"id":13974,"date":"2016-06-10T10:37:07","date_gmt":"2016-06-10T15:37:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/college.unc.edu\/?p=13974"},"modified":"2024-07-02T16:28:29","modified_gmt":"2024-07-02T16:28:29","slug":"the-music-of-discovery","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/?p=13974","title":{"rendered":"The Music of Discovery"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_13975\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-13975\" style=\"width: 500px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-13975 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/21\/2024\/07\/granular_wall.jpg\" alt=\"For two days this past January, Morehead Planetarium &amp; Science Center hosted \u201cGranular Wall,\u201d a 4-by-4-foot sound installation created by UNC-Chapel Hill music professor Lee Weisert and Jonathan Kirk. This large, flat tank filled with water and neutrally-bouyant fluorescent \u201cmicrospheres\u201d uses motion tracking and computer synthesis to interpret fluid dynamics as music. (Photo couresty of Lee Weisert)\" width=\"500\" height=\"400\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-13975\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">For two days this past January, Morehead Planetarium &amp; Science Center hosted \u201cGranular Wall,\u201d a 4-by-4-foot sound installation created by UNC-Chapel Hill music professor Lee Weisert and Jonathan Kirk. This large, flat tank filled with water and neutrally-bouyant fluorescent \u201cmicrospheres\u201d uses motion tracking and computer synthesis to interpret fluid dynamics as music.<br \/> (Photo courtesy of Lee Weisert)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>A four-foot tall glass tank filled with water and illuminated by a soft, emerald light sits in the back of a dark room at Morehead Planetarium. Thousands of tiny beads float in the water and glow with the same green light. A gentle wind-chime-like sound emanates from the tank. Suddenly, the beads begin to move, and the sound grows louder and faster. Then, slowly, they settle, the din now ambient and\u00a0calm.<\/p>\n<div class=\"ast-oembed-container \" style=\"height: 100%;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Granular Wall\" src=\"https:\/\/player.vimeo.com\/video\/121798133?dnt=1&amp;app_id=122963\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"autoplay; fullscreen; picture-in-picture; clipboard-write\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<div id=\"main-content-inner\" class=\"main-content-inner inner\">\n<div id=\"content-group\" class=\"content-group row nested grid16-8\">\n<div id=\"content-group-inner\" class=\"content-group-inner inner\">\n<div id=\"content-region\" class=\"content-region row nested\">\n<div id=\"content-region-inner\" class=\"content-region-inner inner\">\n<div id=\"content-inner\" class=\"content-inner block\">\n<div id=\"content-inner-inner\" class=\"content-inner-inner inner\">\n<div id=\"content-content\" class=\"content-content\">\n<div id=\"node-4433\" class=\"node odd full-node node-type-story\">\n<div class=\"inner\">\n<div class=\"content clearfix\">\n<p>This is what you can expect from a viewing of \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/vimeo.com\/121798133\">Granular Wall<\/a>,\u201d a sound installation created by <a href=\"http:\/\/music.unc.edu\/people\/musicfaculty\/lee-weisert\/\">Lee Weisert<\/a> and Jonathan Kirk. A sound installation moves beyond pure sound \u2014 it\u2019s 3-dimensional, visual, and musical, explains Weisert, a <span class=\"caps\">UNC<\/span>-Chapel Hill music professor in UNC&#8217;s College of Arts and Sciences. The music comes from a generative process, rather than a composed score. In \u201cGranular Wall,\u201d that process is called fluid\u00a0dynamics.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe goal was to translate the ideas, complexities, and phenomena of fluid dynamics into music,\u201d Weisert says. Although music composition using some scientific or mathematical law has been done before, \u201cGranular Wall\u201d makes the music as it happens, in real\u00a0time.<\/p>\n<p>Four propulsion jets inside the tank control the neutrally-buoyant \u201cmicrospheres,\u201d as Weisert calls them. Alternate timing of the jets creates fluid patterns for them to follow, and a motion-tracking program translates that movement into music. For example, as the spheres move higher in the water, the synthesizer plays higher pitches; and as they settle or speed up, the length of the notes gets longer or\u00a0shorter.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe compositional process was really about the sequence of the jets,\u201d Weisert says. The different patterns the jets created are equivalent to the different movements within an orchestral piece \u2014 each pattern is a different\u00a0movement.<\/p>\n<p>The motion-tracking program presented one of the biggest challenges. Because the number of microspheres in the tank was so large, the program had issues processing the enormous amount of data. Plus, neither Weisert nor Kirk had any prior experience with motion-tracking technology. \u201cWe consulted a specialist on it. He basically said, \u2018Good luck,\u2019\u201d Weisert says with a\u00a0laugh.<\/p>\n<p>Undeterred, Weisert and Kirk solved this issue by filtering out the dimmer pixels in the image, and then adding an image delay to the pixels as they moved. This left a trail of where they had been a few moments before. \u201cThe goal was not to 100-percent, perfectly represent the data, because that would create very uninteresting and very unintelligible music,\u201d Weisert says. \u201cThe goal was to create a situation where, just by listening, you could discern what\u2019s happening in the\u00a0tank.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>Searching for\u00a0sound<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Weisert\u2019s music has taken a number of forms, from pieces made exclusively from the sounds of shattering glass to more familiar combinations of electronic elements with orchestral instruments. Because of this variety, Weisert stands out from a more traditional composer who aims to perfect a unique sound. Instead, he constantly searches for new sounds and original ways to\u00a0compose.<\/p>\n<p>For example, \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=uyPm_fLkcKE\">Shirt of Noise<\/a>\u201d keeps the listener curious to where the piece is going, but still retains a structure. \u201cOn the bad side, you could say that it\u2019s not focused. On the good side, you have more unpredictability and a sense of discovery,\u201d Weisert\u00a0says.<\/p>\n<p>That sense of discovery has led Weisert to take on a number of unique projects, including one titled \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/vimeo.com\/18572586\">Cryoacoustic Orb<\/a>,\u201d in which the audience listens to the inside of a sphere of ice as it melts. Another piece, called <em>\u201c<\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/vimeo.com\/19050637\">The Argus Project<\/a>,\u201d uses the changes in the environment around a pond to generate\u00a0music.<\/p>\n<p>Although the main goal is exploration, Weisert\u2019s search has led him to incorporate some of those discovered elements into other works. While helping Weisert with fluid dynamics for \u201cGranular Wall,\u201d <span class=\"caps\">UNC<\/span> Department of Mathematics Chair Rich McLaughlin introduced him to the book \u201cAn Album of Fluid Motion.\u201d Weisert then translated those concepts into a score for a piano piece that he named after the\u00a0book.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019re trying to expose musical behaviors in environments that are outside our intuitive creative minds in direct and aesthetically interesting ways,\u201d Weisert says. \u201cThe technology itself hopefully has a background role in the\u00a0process.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>A new listening\u00a0experience<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The use of technology presents Weisert with a number of challenges to actually performing his pieces live. One of his newer works is a duo with saxophonist and fellow professor Matthew McClure that is entirely improvised. McClure plays saxophone while Weisert processes the music live, adding effects and modifying the sound as McClure plays. This high level of improvisation means that a traditional score will not work. Instead, they use shorthand notes on what type of sounds they want to convey in what order and improvise how they do that every\u00a0time.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat\u2019s even becoming unnecessary,\u201d Weisert says. \u201cWe\u2019re becoming more familiar with what we can do and what each other\u2019s contributions\u00a0are.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Weisert also hopes to have an effect on the audience, but in a different way from how music usually accomplishes this. His works don\u2019t have a particular interpretation as a song may, but are instead focused on that sense of discovery. While he recognizes that people may derive meaning from his music, he wants to stay out of that and let the audience experience the music as he\u00a0does.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019re trying to create in the listener the same aesthetic experience that we have as artists: discovering and searching for new music that didn\u2019t exist\u00a0before.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div id=\"content-bottom\" class=\"content-bottom row nested \">\n<div id=\"content-bottom-inner\" class=\"content-bottom-inner inner clearfix\">\n<div id=\"block-views-boilerplate-block_1\" class=\"block block-views odd grid16-8\">\n<div class=\"inner clearfix\">\n<div class=\"content clearfix\">\n<div class=\"view view-boilerplate view-id-boilerplate view-display-id-block_1 boilerplate view-dom-id-a1e09b16b7781240f7185c60df7478f4\">\n<div class=\"view-content\">\n<div class=\"views-row views-row-1 views-row-odd views-row-first views-row-last\">\n<div class=\"views-field views-field-field-boilerplate-value\">\n<div class=\"field-content\">\n<p><em>Lee Weisert is a composer and an assistant professor in the Department of Music in UNC&#8217;s College of Arts and Sciences. His debut <span class=\"caps\">CD<\/span> of original works, \u201cWild Arc,\u201d was released in\u00a02014.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>Story by Patrick Seelinger, <\/em><a href=\"http:\/\/endeavors.unc.edu\/the_music_of_discovery_0\">Endeavors<\/a><em> magazine<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div id=\"block-views-story_learn_more_links-block_1\" class=\"block block-views even last grid16-8\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div id=\"sidebar-last\" class=\"sidebar-last row nested grid16-5\">\n<div id=\"sidebar-last-inner\" class=\"sidebar-last-inner inner clearfix\">\n<div id=\"block-views-layout-block_2\" class=\"block block-views odd first grid16-5 producer-layout\"><\/div>\n<div id=\"block-block-22\" class=\"block block-block even last grid16-5 equal-heights\">\n<div class=\"inner clearfix\">\n<div class=\"content clearfix\">\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>At the intersection of art and science, music professor Lee Weisert creates sound installations allowing audiences to experience the natural world in a unique way.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":13975,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center 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