nature playing nature Larsen Ice Shelf Iceberg

Ross Ice Shelf Iceberg 2000 2009The super-berg B-15--183 miles long and 23 miles wide--broke off the Ross Ice Shelf Last March 2000. By May, it had broken into two parts, as seen in this satellite view,iand drifted about 20 miles from shore. Meteorologist Matthew Lazzara hopes to put reporting weather stations, like the one shown here, on icebergs. IF AN ICEBERG BREAKS LOOSE FROM ANTARCTICA AND NOBY'S THERE TO HEAR IT, DOES IT MAKE ANY SOUND..." Karen Wright (C) Discovery October 2000

The Climate Symphony By Marty Quinn A Musical Visualization of Ice Core Data

 

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1st National Art Project: Icebergs North on the Red River - Breckenridge to Noyes, Minnesota, 1979-1982

This project requires two years, one for planning (1980-1981); and 1982, the year of its production. Three large red icebergs will be constructed in Duluth, St Paul and Rochester and each will carry a crew of three. They will be in charge of steering as well as other duties which will be explained further into the project. Upon fabrication of the red icebergs, truck, train transportation will deliver them to Breckenridge where a helicopter will place them on the Red River. Ongoing progress will be sound and vision monitored in real time via satellite. The Red Icebergs destination will be Noyes.

At the time, in 1956, when I was re-intering commercial analog AM radio as a broadcaster, I recall a UPI radio press story which reported challenges that were being voiced questioning AT&T retaining its US Government backing as a telephone monopoly. For instance, in President Eisenhower's Defense Department, a subsequent consent decree requireing any divestiture by AT&T was denied. And much later I heard on NBC/TV/Brokaw that President Reagan's Defense Secretary- Casper Weinberger- told a closed door Senate hearing in '81 that because the American Telephone and Telegraph network is the most important communications network we have to serve our strategic system in this country. it was "essential" it be kept "together." (referring to the original Bell Telephone Companies)

beyond the telcos- drawing, writing on copper

we can use your help

If you live in or near the following towns we can use your help: Breckenridge..........and Rochester. Or. If you live in one of the following counties, Washington..........or Pembina. Or.

In the following categories, indicate in what way you think you could participate. Co sponsor, apprentice: environmental sculpture, art involvement for university credit, workshop apprentice/organizer, river edge and town organizer, Red Iceberg flyer distributor, recruitment, community schools organizer, Red Iceberg constructor and pilot........film, radio, video, sound, science. (Circle all that applies)

Mail 15c postage paid, self addressed application to the address on the return envelope.

 

 

 

 

Anticipating the performance in Minneapolis, dancers Sharon Friedler (r), leif BRUSH (c) and Will Swanson earlier tested the 2-way FM beltsaddleharps. Each are wearing a taut stainless steel strand attached this harness between them.This Duluth photograph was taken by Gloria Brush and shows leif wearing a monitoring earbud and the leather waste bands on the dancers hold the battery operated transmitters.The fir tree next to Sharon was plant in honor of our duagter Sanna who was a year when we moved to Duluth in 1975

Loring Park, near downtown Minneapolis

 

pdf

Though this proposal was to have resulted in back-to-back installations, a recounting of the Minneapolis in-nature installation follows.

 200- 5 inch paper cone speakers

  
   

Marcia McEachron

202 is turned on by Scott: the moments upon hearing the initial soundings

Terraplane Chorography IV

This variety of Shadow sensors were placed in the overhead trees which were listened to for "silent" wind-jostled sounds from leaves and limbs. Simultaneously- from a different input source- satellite-delivered Terrain Instrument soundings from Duluth, Minnesota, US were melded and used twice: (1) during the performance these were amped to speakers in overhead trees nearer to the pond and accompanied Sharon and Will, wearing their waist band beltsaddleharps with FM transmitters; (2) another channel was fed via the Terrain Instrument 202 microprocessor system for assigned outputing into two diagonal speaker-laden planes hovering above the grassy performance locale.

pond context looking north

A Minneapolis Park District driver stops by giving support to friends and volunteers of the Walker/NewsTribune sponsored project in assembling and hoisting two planes of 200 speakers each and to eventually hang the four suspended speakers high in overhead trees.

Park district and Chorography constructors go over installation plans prior to hoisting the two speaker planes; the speaker cabeling umbelical strans hover below right

below, Scott begins the cable attachment to individual speakers; four spools of former metal analog spools of telephone wire were purchased from a MPLS Gov-surplus outlet

Sharon and Will practicing in the background

LB: hanging overhead tree speakers in the bucket and snakeing the speaker cables through branches and down the main trunk to the 202

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Terraplane Chorography IV, International Listening //MPEGvideo))

 

Dancers

 

Sharon Friedler and Will Swanson testing FM transmitter belts in Duluth

Interactive choreography site details with background Loring Park Pond where for the duration of their dancing Sharon and Will each listened for possible "zephyrs." Unfortunately there was no wind to activate the wires stretched between themselves.

The dancers froze and held their stainless steel wire taut to listen to gusts fed back in realtime from their overhead speakers in the trees. Both dancers broadcast on separate FM channels: each belt's vibrating wire sounds were received by radios within the 202 area and upon amplification were output to speakers overhead. Additionally mixed into these same speakers, when the wind was still, continuous sound via a KSJN, St Paul, Minnesota, USA satellite downlink from Duluth Minnesota could also be heard overhead. (This was fed via a modulated laser from within the Walker Art Center and its beam was received on a front surface mirror afixed to the bark of the Loring tree. At his point the laser beam was simultaneous split and one beam was directed to another front surface mirror attached to the anchored 202 microprocessor. The laser demodulator translated the light back itno its analog components and these were input into amplifiers which fed the overhead tree's speakers. The diagonally positioned 200 speakers (visible above (r, corner) were playing unique and detailed tree sounds processed via direct output hard wiring into the 202 microprocessor for realtime manipulations. Following the performane beneath the expansive canopy of trees listener, their sources were approximately fifty feet distant (as seen in the top image below the map). The tree-laden speakers are now silent at this point.

From the Walker Art Center, Duluth Terrain Instrument sounds were beamed to the site via modulated laser which was amplified in adjacent, overhead trees.

Terraplane Chorography IV Speaker umbelical cabling from the 202 microprocessor snaked its way overhead and connects with the speakers in the distance. (Sharon Friedler is lower left and Will Swanson is in stripes at center)

Maria Cheng, Skip Lundberg, Leif

Maria , Melinda Ward-WAC,Mpls, Skip's mic

200-5 inch speakers coalesced the output from nearby trees (branches, leaves, limbs) via the Terrain Instrument 202 and processed these sounds through its Intel 8080 microprocessor. The result was a hovering and pillowed spatial envelope. return to data poetry

 

Dancer Maria Cheng Walker Program Director Nigel Reddin

Gary Justis w/Chicago friend

 

Terrain Instrument 202, umbelical cabeling and hardware installations //MPEGvideo)

From the 200 speakers suspended in the trees directly overhead, Scott McEchron connects their speaker cables to the 8080's 5-watt output board via Centronics connectors .

The Terrain Instrument 202 microprocessor:

TOP ROW: Intel 8080 control keys

SECOND & THIRD (up to 500 inputs/200 outputs into 5 watt amplifiers: RCA inputs/outputs

FOURTH: behind LB AD/DA switches (to speakers: indiv #s, a selected grouping, and/or top or bottom plane); 200, 5 watt amps

((in the event of any satellite feed failure these master tapes (nowInternetOrg) were standing by at the ready from an equalized telco pair for playback after being entered into the 202 keyboard's assigned spkr outputs ))

 

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