⪮ Good Morning
The fall equinox is upon us. This month's thread goes from the seasons riding the wave of light and dark, to sin waves in architecture, to sound waves and their patterns.
☀️🪨 Chanquillo solar observatory
Built in the 4th century BC, this Thirteen Towers solar observatory is the oldest in the Americas.
Inhabitants of Chanquillo (or Chankillo) were able to determine the date, +/- 1 or 2 days, by observing the sunrise or sunset as it passed behind the corresponding tower.
The original purpose of the towers were forgotten, but in 02007, they were verified and documented as an astronomical site.
💻🗼 Frank Smullin on Analytic Constructivism
Frank Smullin was a fellow at the MIT Center for Advanced Visual Studies in 01979. His area of practice included sculpture, vector analysis, and computer-aided sculpture.
Over 8 years (~01973-01981) working on software to use underlying 2D plots of sin waves and rolling them into tubes, he was able to create interesting and complex tubular structures.
His large-scale sculptures versions were built using simple sinusoidal mathematics.
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=%22Frank+Smullin%22
⏳🎻 Chladni patterns
In 01787, Ernst Chladni published his technique for creating patterns of sound using sand, a metal plate, and a violin bow.
The vibrations from different pitches of sound caused the sand to bounce into the nodal lines and settle creating beautiful patterns. This is also known as Cymatics.
🎶⛪️ Hidden Music of Rosslyn Chapel
Rosslyn Chapel was built in the 15th century outside of Edinburgh, Scotland - long before Ernst Chladni and the study of cymatics. Decorating the stone walls are 213 carvings that look a lot like Chladni patterns.
The father-and-son team of Thomas and Stuart Mitchell decoded the patterns and produced a tune called Rosslyn Motet.
https://www.rosslynchapel.com/visit/things-to-do/explore-the-carvings/