M.J. Rose

Breathtaking acoustics! Do not miss a chance to watch (and listen to) this beautiful video.

From The Smithsonian,

You Can Hear Hagia Sophia’s Sublime Acoustics Without a Trip to Istanbul
Stanford scientists have digitally created the building’s unique sound, taking listeners back to the Middle Ages

“Hagia Sophia, a former church and mosque, is an important part of Istanbul’s long history. Who knew its sublime sound could be transferred to Stanford?

Twice in the past few years, Stanford scholars and scientists have worked to digitally recreate the experience of being in Hagia Sophia when it was a medieval church. Collaborating with choral group Cappella Romana, they digitally recreated the former holy building’s acoustics, and performed medieval church music in the university’s Bing Concert Hall as if it was Hagia Sophia. Their efforts are part of a multi-year collaboration between departments at Stanford that asks the question: can modern technology help us go back in time?

The “Icons of Sound” project focuses on the interior of Hagia Sophia, using recordings of balloon pops taken in the space and other audio and visual research to  figure out the building’s acoustics by extrapolating from those noises. The scientists used that data to recreate the experience of being there—an experience that has been in some ways timeless for the almost 1,500 years the building has stood. But much has changed for the Hagia Sophia in that time…”

For the original article, click here to go to The Smithsonian.

The conservation process is amazing to watch.

From Atlas Obscura,

Watch a Jacobean Painting Emerge From 200 Years of Grime in Seconds
A mysterious 1618 lady, revealed.

by Natasha Frost

“Two hundred years ago, someone—an aspiring art conservator, perhaps—took a brush and coated a 1618 oil painting of a lady in red with a thick coat of ostensibly protective varnish. Over the decades, the varnish naturally discolored, turning first yellow and then brown, until the whole painting appeared covered in grime. Now—in a flourish—those two centuries of discoloration are gone.

Philip Mould is an art dealer and presenter on the popular BBC art program Fake or Fortune. He bought this painting at auction and posted videos of the dramatic conservation process as it happened. In the videos, Mould applies a substance—a gel-solvent mixture—to the surface of the painting, works it in, and then wipes it back to reveal the painting in its near-original glory…”

Click here for the rest as well as the videos of this in action!

Ok guys, stay with us here for a few minutes and enjoy the wonderful oddness of this fellow demonstrating how Medieval people walked before the invention of hard-soled shoes…