Give a Beat is a social justice organization that is focused on our privatized prison crisis. A Positive Spin:Remixed was an event that gave SUBPAC a chance to connect students through music and academics in hopes of breaking the school to prison pipeline.
The SUBPAC education team held a youth workshop at the Give A Beat Launch Event to demonstrate sound physics concepts to students from local Boys and Girls clubs. Students learned how sound travels in different mediums with “learning stations” using several Roland Aira synthesizers.
Together we replicated the early experiments of Ernst Chladni and observed the resonances of plates set in motion by sound frequencies. Chladni’s technique involved stroking the plate with a horsehair bow to show the various modes of vibration of a rigid surface. When the plate is covered with salt, the resonant motion divides the particles into different shapes based on the nodes of vibration. We replaced Chladni’s violin bow with SUBPAC vibro-tactile transducers and students we able to play, sing and manipulate the resonances into patterns.
Continuing the study of physical sound, we were able to observe physical sound waves inside a Subwoofer filled with non-newtonian fluid. Using a tone generator to set the woofer and fluid in motion, students were able to see the results of different waveforms and frequency changes. When a non-newtonian fluid is disturbed it switches from liquid to solid behaviors. This makes it easier to see the changes and study the nodes and anti-nodes.