Two tesla coils in concert

Photo: Tesla Concert 3, a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial Share-Alike (2.0) image from Tau Zero's photostream, shared in the BB Flickr Pool.

"A concert on the engineering quad, University of Illinois," explains Tau Zero. "The arcs reproduced the fundamental tones of music played back through a PA system. Part of the Engineering Open House."

Boing Boing editor/partner and tech culture journalist Xeni Jardin hosts and produces Boing Boing's in-flight TV channel on Virgin America airlines (#10 on the dial), and writes about living with breast cancer. Diagnosed in 2011. @xeni on Twitter. email: xeni@boingboing.net.

MORE: boing boing flickr pool • DIY • electricity • Science • tesla

More at Boing Boing

Ants and Stars: Bruce Sterling and Jasmina Tesanovic visit the Sardinia Radio Telescope in Italy

The Snowden Principle

http://artdonovan.typepad.com Art

Those are some great looking Tesla Coils.
http://severinghaus.org/ HorsePunchKid

I saw the analogous show at UIUC EOH in 2008. They were being driven by MIDI from Lippold Haken’s Continuum Keyboard. Here are some blurry but colorful photos:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/horsepunchkid/tags/continuum/show/

…and a couple of short videos (turn your volume down):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cB5YlSHEI3k
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ld0yUVqp6vE
ldobe

When used as a musical instrument, I’ve heard the term Zeusaphone attributed to a pair of Tesla coils. I find the fanciful name endearing.
Gilbert Wham

WHY NO VIDEO BOINGBOING? Man, I love me some lightning-based PA system…
http://twitter.com/writebastard Ian Wood

Those look like Stark Industries coils.
Jessica N.

I have cell phone videos but the quality isn’t very good. The event was awesome!
http://www.facebook.com/joel.emmett Joel Emmett

Didn’t I see this already in The Sorcerer’s Apprentice?