live broadcast sound collage


Scientific Instruments from 19th Century Acoustic Workshops

Sound collage of instruments created by Wolfgang von Kempelen (1734–1804), Ernst Chladni (1756-1827), Félix Savart (1791-841), Hermann von Helmholtz (1821-1894), Rudolph Koenig (1832-1901), and Frederic Kastner (1852-1882) and modern instruments inspired by their research.

drawing from recordings of: koenig sound analyzer, koenig tonometer, helmholtz resonators, helmholtz sirens, chladni plates, the savart wheel, and kempelen speaking machine.

also: pyrophone, aeolian harp, cymatic sculptures and two acoustic entrants from the twentieth century: the waterphone and the cristal baschet.

historic instruments featured are housed in the following collections:

The Hunterian Museum, University of Glasgow, Scientific and Medical Instruments Collection
University of Toronto, Scientific instruments collection
Smithsonian National Museum of American History, Physical Science Collection
Humboldt University (Berlin), Physics Department
Harvard Museum of Natural History, Physics Department
Department of Phonetics Saarland University, Saarbrücken (Germany)
laboratoire EM2C, Paris
University of Western Ontario Canada, Science and Technology Museum
MIT Lincoln Labs
Musée Historique de Strasbourg
Moscow State University, Physics Department


listen


Broadcast date: April 28th 2019
KCHUNG Los Angeles 1630AM



SPECIAL COLLECTIONS is a broadcast project by Sam Rowell.
Each edition is mixed live on the air.
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