“Plants and Animals rock so hard, they end up overloading all the scientists’ fancy equipment”
That’s a pretty accurate description of the video for Plants and Animals‘ satisfying, pared-down anthem Lightshow. The Montreal-based trio go about rocking under controlled conditions while they are observed by two researchers. Every sound creates a digital graphic output while the lab-coated scientists struggle to tune a classic cathode-ray tube oscilloscope in the control room. In the end the solo is too much (it is really great), and they’re left shaking their heads.
The video’s director, New York artist Mitchell Hart has apparently described it as a comment on the barrage of data we must face every day that takes our attention away from truly appreciating each individual thing we’re reading, seeing and hearing. The wave patterns above the guitar necks and jaggedly bouncing off the cymbals aren’t animations, though. He made it happen by separating each instrumental track and using data visualization techniques to turn the audio recordings into graphic representations.
With that attention to detail, the video also seems to me to fit in with a long standing fascination with visualizing sound. The oscilloscope in the control room (a beautiful piece of equipment made by Western Electric) acts like an old television, using an electromagnet to deflect a beam of electrons striking phosphorescent surface, one that lights up when the particles strike it. The varying electrical signal that represents the recorded sounds causes the beam of electrons to strike the screen in a wave that has the same frequencies and wavelengths as the sound. It shows us what the wave would look like if it were transverse wave moving up and down rather than a compression wave.
It doesn’t take electronic equipment to do this though. For the home enthusiast, Modern Mechanix published instructions for SEEING SOUND With A Home-Made Oscillograph in their November 1936 issue. The homemade instrument used a thread tied through the speaker diaphragm to transfer the vibrations. Inside the box was small light directed at a mirror. That mirror was tied to the thread and would vibrate in time to the music. The light that it reflected out onto the screen or the wall would then vibrate as well. Futuristic! The introduction shows the excitement of day for using science to understand everyday phenomena:
“FASCINATING mysteries of sound can be explored with a simple oscillograph made from junk-box parts. Plugged into your radio set, it will convert programs into wiggling lines of light, moving across a screen. The human voice may be “seen” as it is projected upon the wall, and any sound may be virtually put under the microscope for analysis.”
Even more striking, and making a comeback with the help of YouTube videos, is the Ruben’s Tube. A sealed pipe is attached at one end to a speaker and at the other to a source of flammable gas. All along the top of the tube are tiny holes where the gas can escape. The sound waves directed into the tube compress and expand the gas as they travel and reflect inside. Where the gas is compressed (the peaks of the waves) more of it is forced out of the holes. Where it is expanded (the valleys of the waves) less is forced out. When lit, those differences can be seen in the height of the flames. Result? Awesome flaming visualization of sound waves! German Physicist Heinrich Rubens demonstrated the first one in 1905.
Plants and Animals have joined in this great tradition with Lightshow, grabbing onto our fascination with trying to understand sound, a fascination that probably extends further to how and why music affects us the way it does. If we can see it maybe we can understand why songs like this sound so damn good.
Lightshow can be found on Plants and Animals fifth album The End of That released in February 2012 by Secret City Records.
The Finch and Pea 
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