I found this video over at Everyday LIstening:

Staalhemel (steel sky) is an interactive installation created by Christoph de Boeck. Using a wireless device for capturing brain waves, the participants’ brain activity influences the activity of the installation.

The installation is quite aesthetically pleasing, although I’m curious about the practicalities: only one person at a time? does a line form for people waiting to get their brainwave hats? what happens if multiple people walk around? could you have two classes of people—one with the hats and “control” over the sound and one without? and so on.

It reminds me of Alvin Lucier’s “Music for Solo Performer” (embedded in this old post on brains), which produced a similarly cacophonous percussion from brain waves. I’m not sure, but I imagine it’s actually the exact same principle at work here. The man in the video says the new helmet has “8 channels of brain waves,” whatever that means, so perhaps things have gotten a little higher resolution, but it’s still interesting that people make live brainwave analysis into clatter.

Staalhemel seems to be an installation-ized version of what, for Lucier, was a meditation (literally! hurr) on performance. Interesting stuff.

You might also want to check out my “brains” tag for some old posts about brain music.

(via Everyday Listening)

Yuri Suzuki’s “White Noise Machine” is an object that responds to street noise with white noise. In the video, you can see it outside of a gallery in Delhi interacting with children. I like the idea of a “yelling machine” (although it seems like you could also change the responsiveness some and make it less like a blaster and more like a slowly changing intervention).

(via designboom)

condemned_bulbes is a sound and light installation created by digital creation studio artificiel. The installation was first exposed in 2003 but is still shown at festivals around the globe.

It is really nice to see a sound installation involving light bulbs that actually uses the sound of light bulbs, rather than just their on/off capabilities.

(via Everyday Listening)

“Without Records” is an installation by Japanese noise/turntable/multi-talented artist Otomo Yoshihide, put together for the Yamaguchi Center for Arts and Media.

It consists of about a hundred modified record players distributed around the space, all playing without any records on them. This results in a variety of noise sounds emanating from the players which change as visitors interact with them.

This digital sculpture by Daniel Franke is a visual representation of Ryoji Ikeda’s “One Minute.” Pretty.

(via Synthtopia)

Mike Patton messes around with noisemakers in this video. The noisemakers are reconstructions of Luigi Russolo’s intonarumori and sound pretty awesome.

The story goes that the originals and their plans were all destroyed, so these reproductions are based on some of Russolo’s patents, eyewitness accounts, earwitness accounts, and some rare photos. I find the fact that their sound-making process is hidden away in boxes very thought-provoking.

(via the music of sound)

If you like glitchy sounds but fear glitchy electronics, Sidsonic has come to the rescue with a sample set of “5 GB of pure Circuit Bend Soundmaterial.”

All samplesets are fully playable with three velocity zones. Common problems for Circuit Bending like pitch and tone fluctuations got eliminated, without curbing the typical sound and the unique experience only Circuit Bending can deliver.

Furthermore, hassles like hung up or burnt-out gear and the lack of reproducibility are avoided by the concept of a Virtual Instrument, so that the Circus Circuit Bending Library makes it possible to comfortably use the one-of-a-kind sound of Circuit Bending within professional productions for the first time.

In this video from TED, Julian Treasure (good name) describes four effects sound can have on you: physiological, psychological, cognitive, and behavioral.

I bet you all can think of some more.

(Also, the talk appears to be a promotion for come kind of sonic branding endeavor? He’s like the R. Murray Schafer of retail.)

(via Christina Oscillator)

If high frequencies are good for keeping away unruly teenagers, then low frequencies are good for keeping away hail storms. (Maybe.)

In the video, you can hear a hail cannon in action. (I kind of wish that link was a game based on hail cannons, not just a flash animation.)

See more pictures from a hail cannon supplier here.

(via nacken)