Noise for Airports

“Tree Listening,” by Alex Metcalf, amplifies the sound of water moving up through a tree (is that actually possible?) and plays it through headphones hanging from said tree. Says the artist:

While listening to the headphones hanging from the trees branches you can hear water being pulled up from the roots to the leaves through the xylem tubes. You will hear a quiet popping sound that is produced by the water passing through the cells of the xylem tubes and cavitating as it mixes with air on its’ way upwards. In the background is a deep rumbling sound that is produced by the tree moving vibrating. As the leaves lose the water through evaporation the cells below the leaf become drier and they in turn pull water from the next cells below, this carries on down the tree all the way down to the roots. The water molecules cling together and form a water chain from the leaves to the roots under tension-cohesion.

In spite of my doubts about what is actually going on sonically, it looks pretty neat!

A lovely little photo and art project (apologies for the tumblr reblog soup below, this one is popular!):

sansfin:

Soundstills by Tviga Vasilyeva

The white forms in these photographs are the sculptural manifestations of audio footage that was recorded along the border between Russia and Finland. Here the unique old-growth forests stand, The Green Belt of Fennoscandia. Recently these ancient trees are being logged for their valuable timber. There are only few remaining areas of ancient forest in Europe with the vast majority of the vanishing old-growth forests remaining are in the North of European Russia. 

The soundwaves are actual objects, each is 6 metres high, reminiscent of the height of a tree, despite looking like digital intervention. I recorded them when the forest was still there. Then, when the trees had gone, I put the ‘sounds’ back to where they used to exist, sounds that look like trees that will never be heard again.

via ekstasis: cloois : dadatata : yayeveryday