The Butterfly Effect
Ranger Liu
Major: Astrophysics & Computer Science
Genre/Medium: Collaborative sculpture + composition; posterboard, cardstock, dowels; Logic/Premiere/Photoshop/After Effects/Illustrator
About the work: THE BUTTERFLY EFFECT is a collaborative sculpture that functions both as a composition device (to generate musical notation) and as a musical instrument (to interpret the notation). This dual-nature is inspired by the overloaded meaning of the name “Psyche” , which refers to the asteroid, the mission, the spacecraft, and the goddess simultaneously. The project is also inspired by the goddess Psyche’s connection to butterflies and the “butterfly effect”, which describes how tiny actions that seem inconsequential actually propagate through the world and have major effects. The project demonstrates this principle by having participants perform seemingly simple tasks to build up the sculpture, ultimately determining the physical structure of the sculpture, as well as the musical interpretation. The performative evolution of the project through three phases also reflects the three major phases of the Psyche mission: pre-launch preparation, actual spaceflight and in-orbit period, and data analysis. Read more…
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