Do Tree Trunks Make Music? You Betcha!
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Thought the rings on tree trunks are good for just figuring out the age of the tree? Think again! A German artist has come up with an ingenious turntable that 'reads' music off tree trunk slices.
The modified music machine, called 'Years' was developed by Bartholomaus Traubeck and uses the same concept as any turntable - The only difference is that it has been overlaid with some clever technology.
The artist begins by placing a slice of bark that has been cut as thin as normal record onto a turntable. To 'read' the music, he replaced the typical needle with a PlayStation Eye, which acts like a digital camera that scans the thickness, strength, growth rate, texture and even overall color tone of the tree 'record'.
This data is fed into a computer that has been programmed with a custom software that maps it to a musical scale designed to replicate piano notes. While it may sound like most of the outcome has been pre-programmed, the artist maintains that each tree trunk produces its own unique, haunting melody - The only drawback? Each record contains just one 'song'!
Resources: Gizmag.com,treehugger.com
YEARS from Bartholomäus Traubeck on Vimeo.
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240 Comments
- raerae4almost 11 yearsok.......
- brooklyn !!!about 11 yearswow... thts kinda kreepy....
- gabout 11 yearsthat is so cool
- gabout 11 yearsnot
- peace10over 11 yearsthat is SO COOL
- alltech25over 11 yearsGood to bring back the old days of records!
- blue123over 11 yearswoooooooooooooooow
- bluewave22almost 12 yearsThe first time I saw this was when I stumbled across vsauce. Still, this is soo awesome and scary at the same time to.
- peepabout 12 yearsprobably really long..... its REALLY big!
- peepabout 12 yearshas anybody seen the big tree trunk at cosi? i wonder what it's song would be