Get the Flash Player to see this player. Gong Zoom (listen with good speakers at high volume) var FO = { movie:"/media/ufo/mediaplayer.swf", width:"400", height:"20", majorversion:"7", build:"0", bgcolor:"#FFFFFF", flashvars:"file=/media/gong_zoom.mp3&showdigits=true&autostart=false" }; UFO.create(FO,"/media/gong_zoom.mp3"); This three minute audio sample resulted from my exploration of the idea of "zooming" into sound. I took a one second sample of a gong-like noise created by hitting an inverted and suspended Ikea wastebasket against the ground and performed several iterative operations on it. Among these operations were time-stretching (increasing the duration of the sound while conserving its pitch), amplifying the sound wave, and isolating certain components via Fourier transforms and noise removal operations. As the iterations progressed I would hear new and often complex sound patterns emerge. I attempted to focus ("zoom") in on those new sounds, further revealing new sound patterns, etc. Each level of zoom appeared to reveal another layer of organization within the original sound, as if I was uncovering the "inner workings" of the gong sound previously experienced only a macroscopic level. Changes in the sound data introduced by the iterative processes were actually responsible for much of what emerged, showing how we fundamentally change things by observing them. The sample has many subtle components that are lost unless it is played loudly and with good speakers or headphones.