The sound of the Universe

            As an aspiring sound designer I have always been fascinated with natural sounds that nature makes. As a student of technology I have always been taught that space is a vacuum and is absent of sound. I watch a speaker on ted .com named Janna Levin discuss sound that the universe makes and it blew me away. I would like to share the link to her speech so you can come to your own conclusion.

            In her speech she breaks down black holes what they are and how they operate. She started to lose me at that point a little bit because I thought this speech was about the sounds that the universe makes. She then showed a model created by NASA of two black holes orbiting each other and their gravitational waves. She went on to explain how these waves were literally the sound of space ringing as a result of these black holes.  Jana then explained if it were possible for us to be near enough to the black hole our ears would resonate with this stretching of space. What fascinated me is she played a mocked sound of a black hole banging in space and t literally sounded as she described it, like a drum.

            This speech to me was really thought provocative. Sound is everywhere; it is almost like audio is a living entity inside our universe. I absolutely love how we can capture these sounds then manipulate them, create new sounds, unnatural sounds and evoke emotion. I see audio as a world of possibility, where creativity is limitless and every sound has it’s own very distinctive voice and personality. This speech ultimately showed me that our entire universe is made of sound and we are able to associate sound visibly with colors and shapes. It is this thought process that I try to apply when I am creating sound FX and designing new sounds. There literally are no limits with audio and that really excites me.