Scientists Translated a Spiderweb Into Music, And It's Utterly Captivating

[Ohio Joe]

Spiders rely quite significantly on touch to sense the world around them. Their bodies and legs are covered in tiny hairs and slits that can distinguish between different kinds of vibrations.

Prey blundering into a web makes a very different vibrational clamor from another spider coming a-wooing, or the stirring of a breeze, for example. Each strand of a web produces a different tone.

A few years ago, scientists translated the three-dimensional structure of a spider's web into music, working with artist Tomás Saraceno to create an interactive musical instrument, titled Spider's Canvas.

The team later refined and built on that previous work, adding an interactive virtual reality component to allow people to enter and interact with the web.

https://www.sciencealert.com/scientists-translated-spiderweb-into-music-and-it-sounds-utterly-stunning

Spider web sonification: Less busy music, sonification of the porous web along y-axis

Spider Web Sonification during Construction

Fascinating stuff.

[SWBTATTReg]

1. Indeed fascinating, as Spock would say. Wonder if the web generating spiders have a musical chorus

going on in their heads while spinning away?

Again, neat, and makes one wonder if they communicate in this manner (w/ their webs, to other spiders, etc.?).