The Tate Museum’s podcast series is at times peculiarly bereft of visuals. The numerous and frequent freely downloadable MP3s document a wealth of panels and presentations, but as often as not the individuals speaking are referring to images the listener won’t see. This can even be an issue in panels about acoustics, such as the 2007 Sound of Materials event, which recently popped up in the Tate’s RSS feed (MP3). All of which said, don’t miss this lengthy survey of how sound works, how materials influence the qualities and distribution of sound, and the manner in which materials inform the development of musical instruments.
The description of the panel, from the Tate’s website:
Material Scientist Dr Mark Miodownik, acoustican Professor Trevor Cox and artists Zoe Laughlin and Martin Conreen will be performing demonstrations and discussing the art and science of the sound of materials. They will consider why buildings sound the way they do, why musical instruments are made from particular materials and what sound reveals that light does not.
Track originally posted for free download at tate.org.uk. More from Miodownik at markmiodownik.net, Cox at sonicwonders.org, Laughlin at asifitwerereal.org, and Conreen at twitter.com/martinconreen.