04 June 2010

Carl Sagen "Sings" of Science (with Dawkins, Hawking, et al.)

Can the coolness of science be conveyed by a sort of synthetic music video? You decide:


[If you can't see the video, watch it at YouTube here.]

This is one of several videos created by John Boswell and his collaborators at Symphony of Science. "Boswell uses pitch corrected audio and video samples from television programs featuring popular scientists and educators. The audio and video clips are mixed into digital mashups and scored with Boswell's original compositions." Symphony of Science "aims to spread scientific knowledge and philosophy through musical remixes" and to "deliver scientific knowledge and philosophy in musical form". [Source: Wikipedia article.]

How science works: Auto-Tune, the software that "bends" spoken phrases into song in these videos, "was initially created by Andy Hildebrand, an engineer working for Exxon. Hildebrand developed methods for interpreting seismic data, and subsequently realized that the technology could be used to detect, analyze, and modify pitch." [At least according to Wikipedia.] Everything is connected?

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