This a documentation video of a project I completed at Fairgrounds St. Pete. It was commissioned for permanent display.
Take 499
This three part machine, controlled by the period of the swinging pendula, searches for prime numbers. When it finds a prime number, it prints it. When it does not find a prime, it prints a space. As each of the three modules finds primes, it keeps a tabulation of the total quantity of primes found. Each module uses the tabulation of primes to slowly stretch the music. As the three components progress at different rates, the sound slows and overlaps in unpredictable ways.
This project is conceived in four parts. There are two light arrays that function as binary counters, and there are two audio tracks that cycle on and off.
The larger light array contains twenty-five lights and counts at a pace that will allow it to cycle through all of its available combinations once every 365.25 days (one trip of the earth around the sun). The smaller light array counts in the same manner, but its twenty-one lights will go through one full cycle every 27.3 days (one trip of the moon around the earth).
The audio tracks are contained within the circle of speakers located at the vertex of the two light arrays. One audio track is the sound of the wind, and it refers to how the sun causes land breeze and sea breeze as the earth rotates. The other audio track is of the ocean, and it refers to how the moon causes tides in relation to the rotation of the earth.