The Earth’s Original 4.5 Billion Year Old Electronic Music Composition (A Work in Progress).

By Robin McGinley

If human beings had radio antennae instead of ears, they would perceive an entirely different sonic universe to that which we presently inhabit. Radio signals, created by the planet itself, surround us at all times, wherever we are. At parts of the frequency range far below that of most man-made radio transmissions, these phenomena can be thought of as a level of sonic reality beyond (although surrounding) our daily sound experience. For although radio waves are generated by vibrations in electro-magnetic materials rather than air particles (as is the case with sound waves) we nonetheless tend to think of radio as a purely sonic medium.

These naturally occurring emissions, although undetectable to the naked ear, are the sonic consequences of a number of natural atmospheric activities, and indeed, with further research, scientists believe that they have potentially much to tell us about our planet, the structure of its atmosphere, and its circadian operations.

This paper presents and discusses the development of, and possible contexts for, an interactive sound installation entitled The Earth’s Original 4 1/2 Billion Year Old Electronic Music Composition (A Work in Progress) which explores an artistic approach to these natural phenomena.

At any one moment there are several thousand electrical storms in progress around the planet. The installation takes as its starting point, and explores, the interception of impulsive electro-magnetic signals generated by lightning. A considerable proportion of radio atmospherics is due to the direct and indirect effects of electrical storms on the upper layers of the atmosphere.

The installation allows us the opportunity to hear the Earth’s own natural electro-acoustic composition, which is as old as the planet itself, and is continuously unfolding around us.

Displacement and Extension

The installation is characterised by the interplay of two concepts that we will define as Displacement and Extension. Through its use of radio signals that are being received in real time, and those that are digitally pre-recorded, the work posits an extension of the artistic experience (or at least of natural phenomena that can be apprehended as artistic material) beyond the physical location of the gallery space.

There is thus a displacement of the artistic content of the work. Although there are sculptural aspects of the work, such as the 3m (10ft) cube steel space frame, the most important artistic component is the VLF and short wave radio signals, which are the residual sonic fragments of occurrences happening elsewhere.

Discharges from lightning storms, which are currently in progress around the planet, or which happened once and were recorded, combine in the work to create a complex network of temporal and spatial displacements. What we are hearing may be the resultant of a lightning storm currently in progress, or may be a recording made during an historical storm; a recording that was made at an unknown point in history, and at a location that is remote from the gallery space.

Any radio signals received in real-time are also similarly remote, since the lightning strike may have happened a few thousand miles away from the installation site, or as far away as halfway around the planet. As we shall also discover from the brief explanation of Sferics and related phenomena below, the radio signal itself may have arced beyond the upper layers of the atmosphere, and out into space, before arriving at the installation site. Thus adding a further point of intersection in our network of spatial and temporal relationships.

The extension of physical location beyond the gallery walls can therefore be seen to operate in the work at a number of levels. Although most of the locations (be they local or remote) are unknown to both artist and audience, these locations are however implicated. They can therefore be seen as vital co-ordinate points in the planet’s natural process of creating the sonic material for the work (even though this probably wasn’t the planetary intention!)

The use of triggering mechanisms to temporally place and activate the sonic material is also a contributing factor in this arrangement, and will be dealt with in a separate section below.

The real-time interaction between the artwork, the audience and the environment, through the above mentioned network of extensions and displacements is further augmented by the concept of relative historical time frames within the piece, which will also be discussed in the next section.

Simply stated, the natural phenomena that gives rise to the sonic material of the piece permeates the gallery space whether the installation is there to receive them or not. They were there before the installation (or even the gallery itself, possibly 4.5 billion years, depending on how long we believe the Earth to have existed), are made manifest during our experience of the work, and will continue after the installation (until apocalypse). The work therefore, in some ways represents a point on a vast continuum, which in its largest conceptual form, is the life of the planet.

Radio

The use of the antique short-wave radio has a number of functions: Firstly, it is a sculptural object, at once a consumer electronics device, a piece of furniture, and an historical artefact. These early radios, although increasingly anachronistic these days, with the present speed of technological progress, in some ways represent the concept of domesticated radio technology, and are definitely more evocative of such than any number of modern black boxes.

The radio is also an interesting addition to the idea of relative historical time frames within the piece. We have a seemingly eternal sound stream emanating from a piece of 1950s electronics.

The Sferics Phenomenon

The first reported instances of Sferic interference (notably the Whistler phenomenon) date from the late 19th century when early wireless and morse operators reported strange "musical" interference on long-distance radio connections. These were dismissed as deficiencies in the telegraph system, and it was not until the 1950s that the generally accepted theory of VLF Whistler and related phenomena was formulated. This theory suggests a complex interaction between terrestrial lightning strikes, the ionosphere and magnetosphere and the solar wind.

Sferics are the most common naturally occurring VLF radio entities which are caused by lightning strikes, and have a non-pitched crackling sound, similar to atmospheric interference experienced on other more common radio bands. The signal reaches the receiver by being ducted between the earth’s surface and the ionosphere, with the original lightning activity taking place within a couple of hundred kilometers from the reception location.

Under certain conditions the natural radio signal is ducted further out into space, into the layers of the magnetosphere, and return to earth via the geo-magnetic lines of force created by the Earth’s magnetic field. The signal is thus distributed over a very large area, with reception being possible in the opposite polar hemisphere to the original lightning discharge.

This gives rise to the characteristic Whistler emissions, as the higher radio frequencies reach the receiver before the lower ones, due to a refractive effect. This causes a separation of the frequencies, and a sliding pitch event when detected on a VLF radio receiver.

Natural Sound and Technological Mediation

"First postulate: Primacy of the ear. - The potential for evolution, at the same time as the limits, of all new music relates to the resources of the ear.

Second postulate: Depending on the first postulate, preference for real acoustic sources to

which our ear has been accustomed for a long time (and in particular a refusal of exclusive

recourse to electronic sources)."

Pierre Schaeffer [1]

"An irrevocable step became necessary: I returned to the element which is the basis of all sound multifariousness: to pure vibration, which can be produced electrically and which is called a sine wave. (…) And thus, for the first time, it was possible to compose — in the true sense of the word — the timbres in a music, i.e. to synthesise them from elements, and by so doing, to let the universal structural principle of a music also affect the sound proportions."

Karlheinz Stockhausen [2]

Since the genesis of studio-based electronic music composition over half a century ago, and in much of the surrounding literature, there has been a perceived gap between natural sound and sounds that are man-made or are a resultant of modern technology. This theoretical schism

can in some ways be seen as historically necessary, as a means for the early composers and audiences to assimilate the new possibilities made available by the synthesiser, the tape recorder, and the loudspeaker. In order to gain perspective on these (then new) developments, many of the early practitioners seemed to define the new music in terms of a handful of mutually antithetical standpoints.

The two quotes that open this section illustrate two of the major propositions: Pierre Schaeffer heralding a preference of a music made possible by the combination of real world acoustic sources, thus having recourse to the natural and everyday environment. Whilst Karlheinz Stockhausen insists upon a music of pure electronic means, without anecdotal recourse to anything but itself, and the composer’s unique vision.

Today we are still experiencing the fall out from this debate (at least in terms of electronic art music). Even though, with the proliferation of electronic music in our contemporary listening diets (e.g. nearly all pop music). Together with the vast expansion of electronic sound sources in our everyday lives (from computer equipment to the latest mobile phone ditty), this debate begins to look as antiquated as the valve radio equipment used in the present installation.

The sound material in the installation presents a new concept to this (in electronic music terms) ancient exchange, and perhaps a novel way of bridging the gap between natural sound and man-made technology, or sound processed through electronics.

The dynamic of the work requires a technological mediation between the environment and the listener/viewer: These natural radio signals can only be heard and detected by the use of technology. There is no other way to make them manifest or verify their existence.

The installation does not represent a split between the artistic situation and the external and natural environments. It rather presents the gallery space as part of the larger environment itself, since the Sferics and Whistler phenomena permeate gallery spaces everywhere, at all times, whether the installation is there to receive them or not. There is a direct connectivity in this work between artistic space, environment and technological mediation.

Technical

The installation comprises a sound palette, which is presented via a multi-channel triggered gallery environment. The work consists of a 3m3 steel space frame within the centre of which is suspended another 1 m3 steel space frame. The internal frame supports an antique valve radio and also houses the playback and amplification equipment.

Four infrared sensors are situated on the upper periphery of the external frame along with four small speakers pointing internally for optimal localisation of the sound.

The input channels of the system, which are derived from a combination of real-time reception of short-wave atmospheric emissions and digital recordings of various types of Sferics, and natural thunder, are fed via a network of triggers into the audio system. Some of the digital recordings have been treated with DSP effects to further transform the natural material. The triggers, which are located at the boundary of the space, operate each input channel, enable the channel for set periods of time before fading out.

The installation thus creates a time-sampling matrix giving a large number of temporal variations, and like the natural composition itself, is unlikely ever to repeat itself. This work also allows the audience an unusual proxy control over the manifestation of an elemental force of nature.

Acknowledgements

Nothing happens without help. This installation would not have been possible without the technical expertise of Philip Arnold and Dermot McGinley, whose help and advice at every stage of the development process, together with numerous technological solutions, brought this project to completion. Thankfully also, these two gentlemen would not be seen within a 20-mile radius of an anorak.

References

1. Pierre Schaeffer, La Musique concrete (1973) p.29-30

2. Karlheinz Stockhausen, quoted by Michael Manion in From Tape Loops to MIDI: Karlheinz Stockhausen’s Forty Years of Electronic Music (http://www.stockhausen.org/tape_loops.html)