Imagining a small spider masterfully weaving its spider web is a feat that continues to amaze us with its perfect architecture and design . Spiders can deftly weave strands of silk into intricate three-dimensional structures that serve as both a home and a useful hunting tool. They are masters of construction.
Now, as if it were the strings of a harp, a team of scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology is trying to do just that: put the music and cobwebs together to create a melody. In fact, they have already translated the structure of a spider web into music.
“The spider lives in an environment of vibrating strings,” explains Markus Buehler, the project’s principal investigator. “They don’t see very well, so they feel their world through vibrations, which have different frequencies.” Such vibrations occur, for example, when the spider stretches a strand of silk during construction, or when the wind or a trapped fly moves the web . Each strand of a spider web produces a different shade.
A few years ago, scientists translated the three-dimensional structure of a spider web into music, working with artist Tomás Saraceno to create an interactive musical instrument, titled Spider’s Canvas. Now, they have refined the previous work, adding an interactive virtual reality component to allow users to interact with it.
Buehler wondered in his day if it would be possible to extract non-human rhythms and melodies from natural materials, such as cobwebs. Cobwebs could be a new source of musical inspiration that is very different from the usual human experience, he clarifies. Additionally, by experiencing a spider web through hearing and vision, Buehler and his colleagues at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), along with collaborator Tomás Saraceno at Studio Tomás Saraceno , hoped to gain new insights into 3D architecture. and the construction of them.
The process
Thus, they scanned a web from a tropical tent-web spider ( Cyrtophora citricola ) with a laser to capture cross-sections in 2D. Then, they used computer algorithms to reconstruct the web’s 3D network. Later, they assigned various frequencies of sound to the strands of the web, creating “notes” that, when combined, create melodies based on the structure of the web. The researchers then created a harp-like instrument to play the “cobweb music” (and the web application to see and hear inside the cobweb).
They also scanned a web while it was spinning, translating each step of the process into music. This means that the notes change as the structure of the web changes, being able to hear these modifications in the spider melody.
“The virtual reality environment is really intriguing because the ears are going to detect structural features that you can see but not immediately recognize,” continues Buehler. “By hearing it and seeing it at the same time, you can really begin to understand the environment the spider lives in.”
What applications could this advance have?
According to experts, translating the structure of a spider web into music could have applications ranging from better 3D printers to interspecies communication and musical compositions “from another world”, the arachnid language. It could help us learn the vibratory language of spiders.
“Now we are trying to generate synthetic signals to basically speak the language of the spider”, clarifies the expert. “If we expose them to certain patterns of rhythms or vibrations, can we influence what they do and can we begin to communicate with them? They are really exciting ideas . “
Referencia: American Chemical Society
