Fundamental Resonance

This program delves into the sounds of Earth's magnetosphere and ionosphere. With the Earth’s magnetic field acting as a natural waveguide, both man-made signals and natural phenomena can be heard in across the radio spectrum. Using radio as translator, invisible phenomena manifest as auditory experiences, allowing a glimpse at the unseen electromagnetic tapestry that surrounds each of us in our d...

This program features a trip around Los Angeles recording the electromagnetic landscape using a wide band radio receiver. Rather than being designed to help pick up a particular frequency, as a standard FM radio would, the SOMA Ether “anti-radio” picks up all electromagnetic signals in the air around it and converts them to sound. Soma Laboratory: Ether Fundamental Resonance is a broadcast series...

This program explores the sonic signatures created by techniques of detecting with sound as well as the sounds made by detectors. Bat detectors, geiger counters, electrorecepetion, metal detectors, archeoacoustics and sonar are discussed and auditioned in this survey of the technologies, methods, and techniques used in sonic detection. Sourced sounds: Science History Institute Museum and Library D...

Infrasound refers to sound waves with frequencies below 20 Hz, which are too low for the human ear to detect. These waves are produced naturally by various sources such as earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, storms, and meteor impacts, as well as by anthropogenic sources like industrial machinery, wind turbines, and nuclear weapons. This program describes the ways infrasound has been observed and doc...

This program delves into the auditory landscape of the human body, examining the sounds of the body experienced within an anechoic chamber and via sonification of the outputs of medical devices. In an anechoic chamber—a room meticulously designed to eliminate all echoes and external noise— silence becomes an almost physical force and the inner sounds of the working body emerge: the steady thump of...

This program explores the transformation of a secret military surveillance network into a crucial scientific tool for ocean exploration, and an anomalous feature of a certain part of the ocean that started it all. During the Cold War, the U.S. Navy developed the Sound Surveillance System (SOSUS), using underwater hydrophones to detect Soviet submarines by listening to the ocean. This technology, o...

This program explores how scientists use sound to gain new insights about the Sun. By converting data from the Sun's electromagnetic fields into sound through a process called sonification, scientists are able to "listen" to the Sun's energy, offering a unique way to study the complex processes happening deep within its core. Sourced sounds: sonifications of data sets of solar activity captured by...

Before there were any stars or galaxies, 13.8 billion years ago, our universe was just a ball of hot plasma -- a mixture of electrons, protons, and light. This program explains what we hear when we listen to “sounds from space” and the ways in which scientific study of the distribution and metamorphosis of the original energetic content of the “Big Bang” has enabled the mapping of the cosmos. Sour...

Fundamental Resonance is a broadcast series that takes a new approach to the audition of acoustic, mechanical, and electromagnetic vibrations. This project is not just about sound, though. It's also about ways to interpret the inaudible and what things we cannot sense can reveal about the universe. In each episode, inaudible acoustics and sonified data act as a bridge between signal and soundscape...