I spent years staring at the 101 from an office in Sherman…
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I spent years staring at the 101 from an office in Sherman Oaks and realized it’s five lanes wide, same as a musical staff. So I made it play itself.
About ten years ago I had a job that gave me a 10th floor office in the Comerica Bank building at the Sherman Oaks Galleria. It looked out over the 405 going through the pass one way, and the 101 heading into Studio City the other.
I spent a lot of time staring at both, and at some point clocked that they're both five lanes wide. Five lanes, five lines — the same as a musical staff. I've wondered ever since what it would actually sound like.
So I built it, using the public Caltrans camera at Moorpark (CAM 618). Every car that crosses a line plays a note. Lane sets the pitch, vehicle type sets the play style, vehicle speed sets how long the note is held, changing lanes bends it a semitone.
It's live, not a recording — the detection runs in your browser on the camera feed, so it's whatever is actually happening out there right now. 3am is a very different piece of music than 5pm.
Happy to link it if that's allowed here, if anyone is curious about the invisible music that the highway makes.
#local
About ten years ago I had a job that gave me a 10th floor office in the Comerica Bank building at the Sherman Oaks Galleria. It looked out over the 405 going through the pass one way, and the 101 heading into Studio City the other.
I spent a lot of time staring at both, and at some point clocked that they're both five lanes wide. Five lanes, five lines — the same as a musical staff. I've wondered ever since what it would actually sound like.
So I built it, using the public Caltrans camera at Moorpark (CAM 618). Every car that crosses a line plays a note. Lane sets the pitch, vehicle type sets the play style, vehicle speed sets how long the note is held, changing lanes bends it a semitone.
It's live, not a recording — the detection runs in your browser on the camera feed, so it's whatever is actually happening out there right now. 3am is a very different piece of music than 5pm.
Happy to link it if that's allowed here, if anyone is curious about the invisible music that the highway makes.
#local
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