The Marginalian
The Marginalian

What the Number Pi Sounds Like

I love the intersection of math and art, and have a soft spot for unusual ways to create music. (We’ve seen, after all, that anything from produce to the HIV virus to your apartment can make music.)

If the extraordinary mind of autistic savant Daniel Tammet, whose synesthesia allows him to experience numbers in color, sound and texture, might it be possible to use ordinary tools to translate one source of cognitive input into an entirely different sensory experience?

That’s exactly what Michael John Blake did in his musical interpretation of the number Pi, translating each of the first 31 decimals into a note and performing the piece on varioius instruments to a tempo of 157 beats per minute. Priceless.

Complement with synesthetic musician Michal Levy’s translation of Bach into shape and color.

via Coudal


Published March 10, 2011

https://www.themarginalian.org/2011/03/10/what-pi-sounds-like/

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