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The Vocal Memnon and Solar Thermal Automata
A memnonium is a self-actuating system that generates music using solar energy. The name comes from the statue of Memnon, a famous tourist attraction in the Greco-Roman world that was said to emit sound when warmed by the morning sun. The Memnon statue inspired the design of musical automata in later periods, to which there are many historical references. Several intriguing technologies and engineering methods may be well suited for modern memnonium design efforts. However, full realization of solar thermoacoustic and thermokinetic sculpture would likely require deep collaboration between physics, music and other disciplines. In modern times, only a few simple proof-of-concept memnonia have been constructed.
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FROM VOCAL MEMNON TO THE STEREOPHONIC GARDEN
Water and technology conspired to impart the power of speech to lifeless stone near ancient Thebes. C. Perry's A View of the Levant, published in 1743, thus describes the mysterious Memnon Colossi (1375 B.C.): "The Northernmost, said to be the statue of Memnon, is cover'd with a great number of Greek and Latin Inscriptions; being so many testimonies of Persons who pretend to have heard it utter a Sound at Sun-rise" (Baines and Málek, 95). The voice of Vocal Memnon was evidently produced by a concealed water organ in which "solar heat was used to siphon water from one closed tank into another and so produce compressed air for sounding . . . pipes" (The New Grove Dictionary of Musical Instruments, s.v. "water organ"). Water organs were described centuries later by Ctesibius (second century B.C.), Philo of Byzantium (second century B.C.), and Hero of Alexandria (first century A.D.).
FROM VOCAL MEMNON TO THE STEREOPHONIC GARDEN: A SHORT HISTORY OF SOUND AND TECHNOLOGY IN LANDSCAPE DESIGN
A PAPER PREPARED FOR CELA 1995
BY JOSEPH DILLON FORD
MIAMI, FLORIDA
MAY 1995
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