So much beauty surrounds us in nature, from the animal kingdom to the plant kingdom. People are most appreciative of what they see in nature, but not many people take the time to appreciate the sounds of nature. Crickets chirping on a dark night, the combination of several birds singing together, spring frogs croaking, or the sound of a gentle breeze through the leaves. These seem rather easy to listen for, but have you ever thought to listen to a tree trunk? Yes, you read that right – a tree trunk. In this instance, this is referring to the rings inside a tree trunk. It is well known that the rings of a tree trunk tell a lot about a tree, primarily regarding the water availability during each season of its existence.
Have the tightly packed circles ever reminded you of a larger version of a vinyl record, though? Well, artist Bartholomaus Traubeck thought it did. He was curious to find out what those rings would “say,” so he invented a type of record player that reads the color and texture variations of the rings inside the cross-section of a tree trunk. It interprets the rings into audible sounds, a type of music if you will. How is something like this even possible? Traubeck’s “record player” uses light to interpret the color and texture variations of a tree’s rings into musical notes and instruments. While it may sound like something out of a sci-fi movie, the actual technology behind it is nothing far-fetched or top secret.
