One of the UK’s most famous bridges has been turned into a musical instrument, capable of playing music composed from its own structural data.
A specially-made double-strung harp will give a unique insight into how the Clifton Suspension Bridge moves and the impact of vehicles, pedestrians and the weather.
The project, developed by the Jean Golding Institute at the University of Bristol, sees the harp being played with two robotic arms, each strumming the strings on different sides to represent data collected on the north and south sides of the bridge.
The 153-year-old structure took on this new guise for Digital Bristol Week, with a free performance at the Welcome Hub on Bristol's Waterfront.
Six streams of data were collected from sensors installed on the bridge for a month, allowing engineering academics to understand how it moves, with any changes in the movement profile indicating possible aging or fatigue.
Software allows the data to be displayed to structural engineers or bridge management personnel in real-time, anywhere in the world.
Bristol-based musicians and sound artists, Yas Clarke and Lorenzo Prati, then created an installation to musically represent this structural data.
The harp was designed and built by Bristol-based luthier and guitar maker, Sean Clark. It has 82 strings and is tuned in relation to the bridge’s natural frequency of 12.9Hz.
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Every song needs a bridge
Every song needs a bridge
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