Radiophonic Workshop - Alchemists of Sound.
posted by hama7 on Nov 20, 2007 - 13 comments

Only rarely is there an opportunity to participate in a molecular 'happening'. On an open field at Stanford University in 1971, several hundred students convened to undulate and impersonate molecules undergoing protein synthesis by a ribosome. Narrated by Nobel laureate Paul Berg and performed by a cast of very groovy cats. (via)
posted by Turtles all the way down on Jul 28, 2006 - 16 comments

Self-organization leads to swarm synthesis
posted by Rothko on Jan 31, 2006 - 10 comments

I just finished up reading The Turk by Tom Standage (briefly mentioned in passing here) a biography of the chess-playing automaton that toured Europe and later the Americas during the pivotal transition from the 18th to the 19th century. The Automaton was invented as an exercise in national pride by Wolfgang von Kempelen, who considered it a trifle compared to his experiments with mechanical speech synthesis. As a celebrity, the automaton had historic encounters with Benjamin Franklin, Napoleon, Beethoven, Philidor and Charles Babbage, and fictional encounters with the monarchs Catherine the Great, George III and Frederick II. Standage credits it with influencing the development of the Difference Engine, the power loom, Poe's mystery stories, and Barnum's manipulation of the press. The myths surrounding have even caught James Randi, who seems to have been unaware of a colleague's reconstruction based on notes from the last owner.
posted by KirkJobSluder on Sep 21, 2005 - 7 comments

Physical synthesis models vibrating structures to synthesis sounds (Tao home). SAOL lets you program audio synthesis inside an MP4 file (MP4 home).
posted by andrew cooke on Oct 30, 2001 - 10 comments