FMS Symphony

FMS Symphony is a quirky sonification of the  US treasury balance since the 2008 financial crisis. It was released in 2012 and I asked the creators, Thomas Levine and Brian Abelson, part of CSV Soundsystem, a few questions to know more about it. 

Two Trains: Sonification of Income Inequality on the NYC Subway

Two trains by American composer Brian Foo is a sonification of a subway ride to 3 of New York’s boroughs (Brooklyn, Manhattan, and the Bronx), where the median household income functions as the control data for the composition.

The Last Gun: a sonification of US weapon exports

Today’s project is The Last Gun, an installation work by Constantine Zlatev, an artist in San Francisco. The installation sonifies weapon exports between 1960 and 2010. Constantine was so kind to answer some questions which helped in writing this post.

Brexit and the falling pound

Hello again. After a long recess, I decided it was time to continue. My first post is a very simple sonification. This short sonification in the BBC tracks the value of the Pound Sterling around the Brexit. The pound was rallying quite well in the run-up of the referendum but after the shock result of the Brexit victory, When the result came in, the pound went down significantly.

Stock Exchange Piece

In Stock Exchange Piece, French musician and philosopher Matthieu Saladin took the price and the 50-day Moving Average^⁠1 of crude oil and gold during 50 days (between 4^th of March and 22^nd of April 2007, with a resolution of one datapoint for a day) and mapped them one-to-one (or unit-swapping as Saladin calls it) onto sinewaves.

Playing the Lottery

Playing the lottery in plano by Australian composer Warren Burt is a composition which takes results from the New South Wales lottery.^⁠1 Each winning number consists of six digits. A modulo division is performed on these numbers to fall within a specified range.^⁠2