90 Nicolas Collins
you may find this interesting rather than irritating, so try it. Stephen Vitiello has
made beautiful recordings by placing this photocell circuit on the eyepiece of a
telescope trained on traffic and pedestrians from his studio high atop the old
World Trade Center in New York City – the flickering light/dark contrast
translated movement into ominous yet poignant thunks.
If these pulsey or hummy sounds get too dull, try using the phototransistor or
photocell circuit as the control input to the basic 4093 gateable oscillator circuit
from the Chapter 20. If you also put a photocell in place for the oscillator
frequency control resistor (i.e., instead of a pot) you get a pretty weird “multi-
phase” light-to-sound converter.