Ben Bracken

 is one of the most truly unique institutions in the Bay Area. At the Exploratorium, the worlds of science, art, and education meld together into an compelling vision of how life can be a continuous form of inquiry and exploration. It was one of the first places I went to when moving to the Bay Area, and one that consistently brings me back. From interactive exhibits, film screenings, musical performances, and educational events, there is something here for everyone. Their offerings appeal to a very broad demographic, from wide-eyed toddlers to wise-eyed seniors. It’s always a joy to wander through the exhibits and see this in action, young and old learning, enjoying, and being surprised, together.

Since 1998, the Exploratorium has partnered with NASA and the National Science Foundation to capture a number of solar eclipses with live broadcast feeds across the world and on the internet. For the solar eclipse of 2016, the Exploratorium and NASA sent a team to the extremely remote island of 

 to experience this celestial event. The team consisted of NASA scientists, satellite engineers, a telescope operator, and the Exploratorium’s team. One of the team members was the Exploratorium’s Wayne Grim.

Wayne’s official title is Multi-media Specialist and Sound Curator, but outside of work he is also an accomplished composer and media artist, and he happens to use Max. Fortunately, these pursuits can co-exist and inform each other at a place like the Exploratorium.

The trip started in San Francisco, then flights to Hawaii, Guam, and Yap (Micronesia). From there, it was a two-day boat trip over rough water to finally arrive at the tiny atoll. This particular location was chosen because the length of the full eclipse, aka the “totality,” could be experienced the longest, and the weather conditions that time of year were much more favorable than other options.

For the 2016 Total Solar Eclipse Sonification, Wayne used real-time information coming from their telescope array to create a live sound composition for the duration of the moon’s migration across the sun’s position in the sky, all done in Max. The musical composition also used rotational and orbital periods of the Earth, moon, and sun as formal elements, which, in a way, contextualized the abstract data coming in from the sensors.

The resulting piece, when paired with video, is a beautiful reflection on this stunning celestial event, providing a multi-sensory experience through the creative exploration of data.

This is the full piece, with a duration of nearly three hours:

Those of you with slightly shorter attention spans can 

I had a chance to talk with Wayne this week - he told me a bit more about the project and how Max was used. The patch used 6 different sources of data, all streaming in from an array of five different telescopes, each using different lens filters. Wayne mapped the filter colors to trigger and modulate different kinds of sonic activities, including oscillators, effects, and sound samples. He also used the rotational period of the sun and moon for timing elements in the composition. The entire eclipse lasted for 3 hours 15 mins, and he broke that transit up into structural elements. For example, (spoiler alert!) in the middle 4 minutes, when the eclipse is at its fullest = the totality - a set of string samples swell in and out along with this pinnacle of the natural event. I asked him about his choice of sounds and he said, “I really just picked sounds that I like. I love the pure sound of a sine wave, especially in the lower register. I also 

 and was able to bring in some interesting synthesis as well.”

He explained the setup during the live sonification. “It was completely live. We were sitting out on an abandoned military runway, on an island in the middle of the ocean, under a tent. We had an HD SDI feed from the telescopes directly into the computer. Although I could just start up the patch and let it go, I wanted to be able to get in and tweak things here and there. Then, from the the computer, we went back into a box that encodes it to the satellite feed”. From there, Wayne explained how the signal bounces all over the place to finally get broadcast to various outlets. It sounded like an impressive though confusing system, a messy Max patch on a grand scale. He said, “With everything going on, you want to be sure that everyone is on the same page, and when you get out there, you definitely want to make sure you brought the right cables!”

I asked him if any Max-related problems came up during the event, and he said there were a few moments of overloading a BEAP module which created some digital distortion. “Early on in the piece, the gain in a BEAP module became overloaded and there was this horrible digital distortion. It never happened in any tests.” Isn’t that how it always is? Fortunately, he was able to bring down the volume briefly, fix the problem, and continue on with the piece.

Although Wayne has been a composer and performer for many years, his interest in sonification started at the Exploratorium. He said, “I’ve used Max for other things for a long time, and this seemed like the perfect opportunity. When do you get the chance to have these amazing telescopes directly plugged into your computer?” His first sonification was with the transit of Venus. “The Transit of Venus project was an experiment, and I didn’t know how interesting it would be. What is great about working at Exploratorium is that you can take the initiative and say, 'I’d like to try this thing' and just go for it.” It turned out the project it was popular on the web, so when he did the second project, a smaller annular eclipse in San Francisco, he tweaked it, improving the patch and trying out some different things. And this last eclipse, Wayne further experimented, adding sample playback, and playing with some different formal components to structure the piece.

Through emails and conversations, the response to the piece has been overwhelmingly positive. Wayne said, “I think a lot of people who don’t know my work thought it was beautiful, haunting, and even somehow dark. But, friends who were familiar with my work wondered if I was asked 'tone it down' or 'make it pretty' for the project, which was not the case. If nothing else, it was a great platform to get feedback.”

I chose to put the full piece on during work last week, playing the video on an external monitor and listening to the audio while continuing to work. I’d glance over at the video from time to time, and the audio would come in and out of my awareness. It was a lovely way to end the work week.

Over the next few months I’m looking forward to talking more with Wayne and the rest of the incredibly inspiring Exploratorium about how they use Max, so stay tuned for more!

If you find yourself in San Francisco, I highly recommend setting aside some time to 

You can find information on Wayne’s other projects, musical compositions, and art on 

San Francisco’s Exploratorium is one of the most truly unique institutions in the Bay Area. At the Exploratorium, the worlds of science, art, and education meld together into an compelling vision of how life can be a continuous form of inquiry and exploration. It was one of the first places I went to when moving to the Bay Area, and one that consistently brings me back. From interactive exhibits, film screenings, musical performances, and educational events, there is something here for everyone. Their offerings appeal to a very broad demographic, from wide-eyed toddlers to wise-eyed seniors. It’s always a joy to wander through the exhibits and see this in action, young and old learning, enjoying, and being surprised, together.

Since 1998, the Exploratorium has partnered with NASA and the National Science Foundation to capture a number of solar eclipses with live broadcast feeds across the world and on the internet. For the solar eclipse of 2016, the Exploratorium and NASA sent a team to the extremely remote island of Woleai, Micronesia to experience this celestial event. The team consisted of NASA scientists, satellite engineers, a telescope operator, and the Exploratorium’s team. One of the team members was the Exploratorium’s Wayne Grim.

The trip started in San Francisco, then flights to Hawaii, Guam, and Yap (Micronesia). From there, it was a two-day boat trip over rough water to finally arrive at the tiny atoll. This particular location was chosen because the length of the full eclipse, aka the “totality,” could be experienced the longest, and the weather conditions that time of year were much more favorable than other options. 

For the 2016 Total Solar Eclipse Sonification, Wayne used real-time information coming from their telescope array to create a live sound composition for the duration of the moon’s migration across the sun’s position in the sky, all done in Max. The musical composition also used rotational and orbital periods of the Earth, moon, and sun as formal elements, which, in a way, contextualized the abstract data coming in from the sensors. 

Those of you with slightly shorter attention spans can find an excerpt here.

I had a chance to talk with Wayne this week - he told me a bit more about the project and how Max was used. The patch used 6 different sources of data, all streaming in from an array of five different telescopes, each using different lens filters. Wayne mapped the filter colors to trigger and modulate different kinds of sonic activities, including oscillators, effects, and sound samples. He also used the rotational period of the sun and moon for timing elements in the composition. The entire eclipse lasted for 3 hours 15 mins, and he broke that transit up into structural elements. For example, (spoiler alert!) in the middle 4 minutes, when the eclipse is at its fullest = the totality - a set of string samples swell in and out along with this pinnacle of the natural event. I asked him about his choice of sounds and he said, “I really just picked sounds that I like. I love the pure sound of a sine wave, especially in the lower register. I also discovered a few BEAP modules and was able to bring in some interesting synthesis as well.”

He explained the setup during the live sonification. “It was completely live. We were sitting out on an abandoned military runway, on an island in the middle of the ocean, under a tent. We had an HD SDI feed from the telescopes directly into the computer. Although I could just start up the patch and let it go, I wanted to be able to get in and tweak things here and there. Then, from the the computer, we went back into a box that encodes it to the satellite feed”. From there, Wayne explained how the signal bounces all over the place to finally get broadcast to various outlets. It sounded like an impressive though confusing system, a messy Max patch on a grand scale. He said, “With everything going on, you want to be sure that everyone is on the same page, and when you get out there, you definitely want to make sure you brought the right cables!” 

If you find yourself in San Francisco, I highly recommend setting aside some time to visit the Exploratorium.

You can find information on Wayne’s other projects, musical compositions, and art on his web site.


The Music of Occlusion: Max at the Exploratorium