A virtual wind chime, created in Pure Data (Pd), reacts to real-time Met Office data. Wind speed and wind direction data is used to trigger a pentatonic scale of synthetic bell-like sounds. An automated text-to-speech recitation of the corresponding weather conditions is sounded at regular intervals, using descriptions from the Beaufort scale.
The recording is a snapshot taken from a live ‘patch’ run on 14th March 2020, and represents data from four locations at each of the extreme points of the UK (North – Unst, Shetland; East – Lowestoft, Suffolk; South – Hugh Town, Isles of Scilly; West – County Fermanagh, N.Ireland).
The patch is able to run perpetually and may be configured to use data from any of the weather stations sited across the UK. Tuning of the wind chimes may also be adjusted to use any musical scale.
Wind Chime was submitted to The Lake Radio‘s ‘Works for Radio #4’ and has been selected for inclusion in their playlist.