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The Music of Colliding Black Holes
Music, video and words by Ha Chi Ming
“Just as from a single lump of clay, dear boy, one would know about
everything made from clay, the difference being a mere verbal distinction,
a name, the reality is only clay.”
~ Chandogya Upanishad 6.1.4
"Gravitational waves, the booming echoes of massive objects colliding in
distant regions of the universe, have been recently detected for the first
time by LIGO, the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory.
Gravitational waves are predicted by Einstein’s theory of general relativity,
which says that massive objects warp space-time around them. When
these objects accelerate, they make gravitational waves: ripples in the
fabric of space-time that spread outward.
Art has the power to unify perceived duality. By means of an artist’s
context and composition everything experienced can be regarded as art,
and in that sense, seamlessly interconnected.
The sounds in this composition derive entirely from the audio
representation of the recently detected Gravitational Waves. Other than
being composed into a musical arrangement, only very basic audio effects
and processes have been applied to the raw data – delay, reverb and
pitch.
The original sounds were produced by the Laser Interferometer
Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) in February 2016. They provide
the first direct evidence of gravitational waves, the ripples in the fabric of
space-time that Einstein predicted a century ago.
The sounds are what two black holes colliding sound like. The ‘chirps’ are
gravitational waves converted to audible sounds. The faint ‘thump’
matches the gravitational waves’ frequencies. The louder ‘chirp’ is a
higher frequency better suited to human ears.
Even noises from the farthest reaches of the universe can be sculpted into
something familiar and creative here on earth. Magically, this soundtrack
is born from a tremendous energetic dance a billion light-years away.
This piece aims, therefore, to show how a black hole merger can produce
new manifestations of energy and how it can meet and merge with the
human paradigm."
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