The Alphabet of Nature

This instalation was created for [State of Things] @ Imal

Exhibition Text

For ‘The Alphabet of Nature’, Gert was influenced by [Mercurius van Helmont] and his work ‘Alphabeti veri naturalis hebraici’ (1667). In this treatise he proclaimed that the speech organs, when uttering a sound, are shaped exactly like ancient Hebrew characters. Each character represents how the lips and tongue should be positioned. In this he found proof of the innate and universal nature of language. Van Helmont’s essay inspired Aertsen for his research on the deconstruction of the mechanics of speech. In an attempt to create his proper universal language, he created a series of objects and sounds for the installation ‘The Alphabet of Nature’.

Concept & realisation: Gert Aertsen / Production: Overtoon & lahaag.org / With the support of the Flemish authorities / With thanks to: Wendy Van Wynsberghe

Exhibition shots

The state of things, Group show @ Imal, Nov - Dec 2016

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There is also information between words

https://www.wired.com/2012/04/an-essay-on-the-new-aesthetic/

https://creators.vice.com/en_us/article/in-response-to-bruce-sterlings-essay-on-the-new-aesthetic

sound, speech & formant synthesis

http://reactivemusic.net/?tag=text-to-speech : overview of articles related to text to speech on reactive music
https://mitpress.mit.edu/designingsound/ : Code examples for “Designing Sound” textbook
https://mitpress.ublish.com/book/designing-sound 
http://research.spa.aalto.fi/publications/theses/lemmetty_mst/chap5.html : history of speechsynthesis.

constructed language (conlang)

http://www.dblondin.com/092507.html
http://www.dblondin.com/101606.html

facts and figures

The natural frequency of the vocal cords apparatus is determined by the size, muscular force and lung pressure.
It varies depending size, age, species, ...
Our voices have a frequency around 100 Hz to 200Hz inadult male humans, 200Hz to 300Hz in adult female humans, and up to 350Hz in children.
For cats this rises to 500Hz, and for buffalo, walrus, and lions it can be as low as 30Hz.

artists

http://www.gordonmonahan.com/pages/home.html
http://www.wernerdurand.com
http://www.francois-louis.com

tadlksf

http://designingsound.org/2013/04/sonographic-sound-processing/

Jean Francois Charles http://cycling74.com/download/Share/Jean-francoisCharles/jfc-spectral-tutorials.zip http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/abs/10.1162/comj.2008.32.3.87