Dissonant particles

An abstract animation based on experiments with sound. Gordon describes the work as follows “Psychoacoustic experiments have indicated that two pure sine tones are played simultaneously, they will sound most dissonant when they are around a semitone apart in pitch. In Dissonant Particles, each particle emits a sine tone. The dissonance between them acts as a repulsive force that pushes the particles apart, both in position and in pitch. There is also a long-range (“cosmological”) attractive force that prevents the particles from flying off to infinity. The particles pulsate and slowly evaporate; both of these processes affect the way they “feel” the forces acting on them. The colour of a particle indicates pitch: red for low pitches, green for intermediate, and blue for high. The camera tracks one particle, which is always shown in the centre of the screen.”
Psycho acoustics is the study of subjective experience of audio versus the scientific measurement of sound by various devices. For example, the frequency of a signal may not change but we may perceive pitch changes if the amplitude changes.
http://www.gordonmonro.com/pieces/dissparticles.html