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Science 30 April 2004:
Vol. 304. no. 5671, p. 677
DOI: 10.1126/science.304.5671.677b
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Figure 1 Earth is bathed in an invisible sea of radio waves and other electromagnetic signals. Now a quirky new sci-art project plans to bring that unseen world to the public through a project called Sky Ear. To be unveiled in London during a 4 May lunar eclipse, it involves launching a "cloud" of 1000 electronics-equipped helium balloons.

Brainchild of London-based artist and architect Usman Haque, the tethered balloons will be loaded with colored light-emitting diodes (LEDs) and tiny gaussmeters--used to detect electromagnetic flux--linked to cell phones. Radiation will cause the LEDs to flicker, while observers at the Greenwich observatory or on the Web will be able to use phones to tap into the sound effects. Random electromagnetic pulses generate sounds called whistlers and spherics caused by storms and lightning. They are "beautiful--the audible equivalent of the northern lights," says Haque. A nearby airport prevents the tethered cloud from floating higher than 60 meters, but a second run of the event in Switzerland later this year should see it rise to twice that height.

CREDIT: U. HAQUE;




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Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)