The Health Museum of Houston, TX is showcasing an exhibit created by the Science Gallery of Dublin that explores the relationship between music and the body through Art and Science.
The exhibit was created around the theory that music is a central part of the human experience as it drives us to sing, strum, drum and dance. With this in mind they explore the scientific basis as to why people whistle, hum and toe-tap.
Cognitive scientist Steven Pinker recently claimed that music is “auditory cheesecake,” designed to tickle parts of the brain designed for more serious purposes like abstract reasoning and speech. Our brains, ears and vocal chords are exquisitely designed for enjoying and creating music but everyone seems to have a distinctive experience with different sounds; which can be experimented with at the exhibit. Biorhythm allows people to feel how music moves through their bodies through an interactive bazaar of unique sonic experiences, experiments, installations and performances from musicians, engineers and neuroscientists from around the world. Let us explore all that the exhibit has to offer in the hopes of tingling your senses.
According to Health Science Educator; D’Wana Henderson, Biorhythm comes to us from Ireland. New York got this exhibit first. This exhibit showcases how sound and music affects the human body. One scientist and one artist were required to create each piece. Biorhythm is designed to push the limits of the human body to create music. Henderson shares, “When I look at all of these pieces – it kinda gives me a different perspective of how people from different parts of the world understand music.”
Instrumen
By Chaja Hertog of the Netherlands
The “Instrumen” perform a haunting musical experience created by their physical integration with the instruments they are playing. By slowly moving their bodies the performers build up a soundscape that would be impossible to recreate using conventional instruments. According to, Health Museum Science Educator; D’Wana Henderson, the musicians were hand picked by the artist. They had to be physically fit musicians and they had to completely understand their instrument. The doctor chose them after many fitness and instrument tests. This exhibit covers a 10min video of a trio of musicians and their “instruments” that progressively get louder. The Health Museum cautions viewers to be prepared to be moved and disturbed by the powerful audiovisual work presented in this exhibit.
Sonic Chair
By David Handford of the UK
Every gallery needs a chair, but the Health Museum cautions users to beward of this one. According to Henderson this 1920s chair was recovered from a dumpster and reconstructed with sonic charges. The chair allows you to manipulate the voltage-controlled oscillators on the control panel and you will physically experience the power of sound to your personal liking and the intensity is up to you. The technology the artist used to create the sound is now being used in many other applications. For example; soothing vests which encompass sound and technology. The same technology used in the chair is now being used in chairs to assist students who are experiencing behavioral issues or ADHD. The chairs help calm the child using vibrations.
Optofonica Capsule
By TeZ of Italy
This shell-like shape encapsulates you within an immersive audiovisual structure. According to Henderson, the artist states that if you are in tune with sound then you should be able to feel vibrations in your skull all they way down to your feet. She also shared that some musicians who have visited the exhibit felt the vibrations so strongly that they almost felt shocked. A 7 min audio video plays in a 7min loop to resonate sound and tactile sound while delivering specially composed visuals to your eyes. Low frequencies are also fed through the floor converting the sound into vibrations throughout the body. The Health museum cautions that this installation is not for the faint-hearted.
Chains of Emotion
By Javier Jaimovich of Belfast (UK)
Sonic Arts Research Centre Queen University
This is a highly participatory experience, urging visitors to form human chains to create a unique and ever-changing musical performance. This technology uses the Galvanic skin response which responds to our sweat glands. According to Henderson, if a person has just eaten or washed their hands it doesn’t tend to work well. And if you’re just a naturally relatively calm and collected person it doesn’t work either. In this exhibit the body is the connection from the positive to negative charge which in turn creates a unique sound depending on which chains are being touched. Henderson asks, “Is it a jumble up of emotions or separate emotions. We need human connection to get them all to work. We need a negative and a positive to get them all to work.
Emotion in Motion
By Niall Coghlan of Belfast (UK)
Sonic Arts Research Center Queens University
This exhibit invites you to measure your emotions in relation to music as part of an on-going experiment with music and emotion. It uses the Galvanic skin response and heart-rate monitors while answering a series of questions. Does your body like music you thought you hates? The experiment reads your physical response to a selection of music samples; in turn it gives you a number 1-100 based on your pulse and skin response and your answers. 100 means what you heard evokes emotions.
Listening Devices
By Alex De Little and Lara Karady of the UK
This exhibit looks at directional sound. Our understanding of the position of sounds in space is related entirely to the size, shape and position of our outer ear, or pinnae. These listening devices confuse the ear by altering and limiting our ability to perceive sound which sends the guest into an altered sonic reality. Find out if they affect your perception of the world around you.
Reactable
Comes to us from the Netherlands
It is a collaborative, multi-user audio-visual experience. Sensors in the table and the objects on top of the table combine to create a sonic experience that is different every time a piece is moved. It was created by the Music Technology Group at the University of Pompeu Fabra, Spain. It allows the instrument to be played by many player simultaneously, opening a whole universe of musical possibilities.
Hear, Hear
By Papermen of Ireland
We hear because our brain collects and processes the sound waves in the air. Physical motions is turned into chemical signals inside the ear that are sent to the brain. A collaboration between artist and scientist has created this playful exploration of the world of human hearing.
Sound is derived from percussive bones (3), rippling hairs and moving liquid in the ear. Make a sound and you will get anything from green to red depending on how loud the sound is perceived.
Sonic Bed Marfa
By Kaffe Matthews (UK)
This bed is not a bed made for sleeping. Sub woofers deliver a deep and intimate sonic soundscape throughout the structure, connecting you will all of your senses and enabling you to feel as well as hear the sounds transmitted. The artist recorded sounds she made while playing the theramin and uses them to help you explore a very personal relationship with music. It is similar to being in a tank full of sound; like a sonic dip.
The Theremin Inspectors
By Sean McDonald & Alex Hornbake of the USA
The Theremin allows you to create sound without touch. It is one of the most unique instruments ever invented. Your body creates interference patterns around the instrument which allows you to make music. This piece demonstrates the way sound waves are carried through the air. This piece was intended to use music to teach the science of sound.
Body Snatcher
By Alex Dowling & Sinead Meaney of Ireland
This piece allows you to make your own music in the gallery. You can sample yourself at the software station and get instant music feedback in the form of a personal dance tune.
Sonic Magic: The Wonder and Science of Sound
In conjunction with this exhibit The Health Museum also offers it’s guests a 45 minute video that talks about sounds and how it is being used in different technologies as well as in medicine. The video provides many facts on what sound can do. Sonic Magic takes us behind the scenes in cutting-edge hospitals and research labs where sound is eliminating cancer tumors without surgery, stopping neurological disorders, and may even reverse the effects of Alzheimer’s Disease. It also introduces us to the fields of acoustic ecology and acoustic engineering, showing us how sound shaped our history, and is being shaped to improve communication and enhance our public spaces. The documentary also looks at the other side of sound — the hearing damage caused by noise and aging.
If you will be in Houston this Summer, make some time to learn a thing or two about music and the body and view the Bio-Rhythm exhibit. It will be at The Health Museum of Houston, TX until July 31, 2018. Participate in all components of the exhibit and you won’t be disappointed.
