Very recently,I’ve gotten interested in experimental technology projects. As a biologist, I found tremendously creative a project titled Years by a young German named Bartholomäus Traubeck. In one of his most recent projects, Traubeck reads a tree’s ring information data and translates it into music. As we all know, one can estimate how old a tree is by counting the rings across its trunk. As reported in a couple of technology blogs I read recently, the tree’s rings are analyzed for strength, thickness and growth rate. The combination of these characteristics create the final sound. I don’t quite understand the technology behind the Years Project. All I know is that a brain-like coronal section of a tree gets read by a PlayStation type camera just like a needle used to read Elvis Presley vinyl records in the good old days. The experimental data gets analyzed based on the wood’s texture and its relation to a certain set of programming rules, resulting in the piano concert below. Innovative ?

YEARS from Bartholomäus Traubeck on Vimeo.