When Music & Science Meet

By David Hall

If you were lingering for a moment on Platform 2 of Peckham Rye train station in early July, you may have been forgiven for thinking that some mythical beast from 20,000 leagues under the sea had run aground in the Thames and crawled into Peckham to die. Some kind of Kraken maybe?

But that's not the case.

Rather this is the latest venture from Experiment 1, who specialise in bringing together science and art in curious and entertaining exhibitions throughout London. This latest installation is the gas organ: essentially a four transparent vertical tubes containing four small flames each connected to some stuff in the middle.

The gas organ is a type of pyrophone, from the Greek words for 'fire' and 'sound'. Sound is generated in an open-ended tube when the heat from a propane flame causes the air to heat up and vibrate, which sets up resonance in the tube. The pitch of the sound is determined by the length of the tube, with longer tubes producing lower frequency of vibration. Chaotic turbulence produced in the flame by air currents, and sound pressure waves add vibrato and beats to the already complex mix.

The organ is controlled by servos (small motors) which adjust the volume of gas in the flame and also the ratio of the gas/air mix. The servos can be manipulated either by random circuitry or by radio controls, allowing the gas organ to be 'played'.

At the recent exhibition in Peckham, two artists in gas masks took the helm. We went to take a look at what all the fuss is about.

Operating the organ with what looked like two model aeroplane remote controllers, the black-clad musicians delicately manipulated the sputters and sighs of the enormous instrument. The performance only lasted about ten or fifteen minutes, but this was long enough to contrast their purposeful human touch against the random patterns of circuitry. Both were fantastic in their own right, but watching people play the beast made it feel like we, too, could harness its power.

Lorraine Liyanage, one half of Experiment 1's core team, is now looking at ways to raise the profile of the gas organ and is setting the ball in motion for plans of having a larger incarnation of the organ present to start the Olympics ceremony in 2012.

Imagining its drone encompassing a wide open area of London would be a science fiction that we can only hope becomes reality. Kicking off the biggest British sporting event in 56 years with a rendition of fire music that sounds like a buffalo attempting to pass a foghorn would certainly be memorable.