Quote:
Originally Posted by NEOWatcher
How? Sure; it's obviously a different way to represent this. But; no matter what the process or methodology of that sound is, it's still something that really doesn't appear to be all that useful except for the experience and the thoughts that it might invoke. In other words, other than artistic interpretations, what can this do?
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Thanks
NEOWatcher. In pondering how to respond to your good question I have realised it gives me the opportunity to make good on a recent promise to
Hornblower in a
Q&A thread on gravity and the barycentre to discuss the theme of planetary resonance. Here are three practical examples of the astronomical scientific use of this method.
1. Using a heliocentric model, at speed one year per second, with Earth and Venus at high volume and all other planets at low volume, will produce a near-totally regular five note pattern. This is an illuminating way to illustrate the orbital relation between earth and Venus. The corresponding geocentric model would turn up the volumes of the Sun and Venus to produce a very similar result, although with the interesting added complexity of the retrograde motion of Venus. Given that this method 'sheds sound' rather than light
on the planetary patterns under review, it makes sense to call it 'ilauralating', to coin a neologism, although it is also illuminating in the conceptual sense.
2. A larger 'ilauralating' example, showing the rhythm of the solar system barycentre, is to set the speed at 19.8 years per second, and turn up the volumes of Jupiter, Saturn and Neptune against the rest. Their orbital conjunctions produce a near-exact 14:9:5 ratio every 179 years. This piece will result in a unison every 9 seconds rising chromatically by one semitone using method 1, with overlapping sets of chromatic unison points at 9 second intervals. I have previously documented this visually in a
general science thread, and expect that producing an aural representation will make the patterns much more obvious.
3. A third more general example is that comparing geocentric and heliocentric compositions for the same period would be an interesting 'ilauralation' of how the terrestrial orbit produces apparent direct and retrograde motion.
I understand that use of the term 'planetary resonance' to describe these Earth-Venus and Jupiter-Saturn-Neptune patterns is not conventional, but I struggle for a better term for the apparent phenomenon. The point, in answer to your question, is that as well as producing artistic ambient soundscapes (with more cosmic structure than phone numbers!) the method enables us to condense regular periodic structures of the solar system into a very short time period to help perceive their rhythmic cycles.