whitney music box - var. 0 - chromatic - 48 tines

December 22, 2011 12:47 PM

whitney music box -- a fantastic animation

You may notice some interesting links between the visuals and the audio, especially if you are a musician. For example, when the pattern forms a 3-arm starfish, the chords you are hearing are diminished chords, which consist of minor thirds, an interval in which the notes are 3 chromatic steps apart. The chords you hear always bear this type of relationship to the pattern you are seeing, consisting of intervals which match the arrangement of arms.

Really, just look, and you'll get it.

More musical balls.

posted by MrMoonPie (18 comments total)

(via Meatbomb)
posted by MrMoonPie at 12:48 PM on December 22, 2011

Fascinating!

For whatever reason it was thrilling the first time I recognized there were patterns forming. I'm not a musician or anything, I just like colors and noises.
posted by NerdcoreRising at 12:59 PM on December 22, 2011

Previously, from 5 years ago.
posted by jedicus at 1:00 PM on December 22, 2011

I can't stop watching.
posted by Think_Long at 1:01 PM on December 22, 2011

I created a simple ball delay trap in the balldropings applet. The tones are lovely, if a bit fast. I'm closing that window now, for fear it'll suck the rest of my day, trying to create more complex, appealing loops. Thanks for these!
posted by filthy light thief at 1:11 PM on December 22, 2011

Previously

Dang it!
posted by MrMoonPie at 1:13 PM on December 22, 2011

Ditto on the thanks for these - like filthy light thief, I was entranced by the emergent melodies in the balldroppings app. I only wish I could save the state of a given canvas. Might be time to dust off the old Javascript book...
posted by ElGuapo at 1:27 PM on December 22, 2011

FLT you could always decrease gravity and the ball drop rate....
posted by seanmpuckett at 1:31 PM on December 22, 2011

In balldroppings, with the perfect combination of drop rate, gravity, and height/angle of line, it's possible to get all the balls to bounce at the same time, on the same line. Then you can play with the drop rate to get some interesting patterns.
posted by MrMoonPie at 1:35 PM on December 22, 2011

I just like watching the patterns form and re-form.
posted by not that girl at 1:36 PM on December 22, 2011

This has always reminded me 2001 for some reason. The abstract visuals and the atonal music, I guess..
posted by empath at 3:15 PM on December 22, 2011

probably the coolest internet-musicky thing I have ever seen
posted by moorooka at 3:38 PM on December 22, 2011

This just broke my brain.

SEIZURE WARNING.

Watch in full screen. With headphones.

On LSD.
posted by empath at 3:38 PM on December 22, 2011 [1 favorite]

***blublublublublublublublub***

looks like I'm not going to get anything done today
posted by moorooka at 3:57 PM on December 22, 2011

I can't believe how much time I spent staring at those.

It would be fun to play with the periodic interval to see what kinds of patterns form.
posted by Xoebe at 4:13 PM on December 22, 2011

I approve of this post for anagrammatic reasons.
posted by unliteral at 5:40 PM on December 22, 2011

Sure it's a double, but I'm glad it's here again. I was looking for this just the other day after finding the pendulum waves thread.
posted by flabdablet at 3:35 AM on December 23, 2011

THANK YOU, flabdablet--I was looking for that post too--was going to include it in the "more inside," since it seemed relevant. Neato that we were thinking along the same lines.
posted by MrMoonPie at 6:30 AM on December 23, 2011