notes of infinity ·

Love music and science? Explore my collaboration with Max Cooper where we tell the story of infinities and animate the digits of π. Both tracks appear on Max's Yearning for the Infinite album.

The art of Pi (`\pi`), Phi (`\phi`) and `e`

▲ 2021 `\pi` reminds us that good things grow for those who wait.' edition.

▲ 2019 `\pi` has hundreds of digits, hundreds of languages and a special kids' edition.

▲ 2018 `\pi` day stitches street maps into new destinations.

▲ 2017 `\pi` day imagines the sky in a new way.

▲ 2016 `\pi` approximation day wonders what would happen if about right was right.

▲ 2016 `\pi` day sees digits really fall for each other.

▲ 2015 `\pi` day maps transcendentally.

▲ 2014 `\pi` approx day spirals into roughness.

▲ 2014 `\pi` day hypnotizes you into looking.

▲ 2014 `\pi` day

▲ 2013 `\pi` day is where it started

▲ Circular `\pi` art and other distractions

Like music with numbers? Here's a short list of some of my favourite songs that have numbers in their lyrics. Absolutely none of them is about bottles of beer.

music with numbers

1 — One Hundred Billion Sparks, Max Cooper | Imagine a neuron firing. Now imagine 100,000,000,000 neurons firing. This is the music for it.

2 — Numbers, Smoke City | This song is entirely composed of references to different numbers. The bonus? It's both in English and Portuguese. I love the way it ends—"Isn't it beautiful out here?".

Un
Un
Four
Five

Fifteen
Quinze
Seventeen
Seven

...

Tres
forty nine

Isn't it beautiful out here?
Isn't it beautiful out here?
Isn't it beautiful out here?

3 — 99 luftbaloons, Nena | The numerical classic.

Hast du etwas Zeit für mich
Dann singe ich ein Lied für dich
Von 99 Luftballons

4 — One, Aimee Mann | Beautiful mathematics of relationships using small numbers.

One is the lonliest number that you'll ever do. Two can be as bad as one, it's the lonliest number since the number one.

5 — Angels at My Door, Una | Long sequences of numbers.

58, 56, 54 angels at my door.
63, 62, 61, 60, 59, 58 angels at my gate.

6 — Tricky, Tricky, Royksopp | Number words about the fearful six from Norway.

Six afraid of seven 'cause seven, eight, nine
I'm about to lose it the second time

7 — Pt vs Ys, Yoshinori Sunahara | The first four numbers, in German, are this song's lyrics.

Eins, zwei, drei, vier.

8 — Der Kommissar, Falco | Unlike the previous song, this one starts with a German count (doesn't get to vier, though) and just gets better from there.

Two, three, four
Eins, zwei, drei
Na, es is nix dabei
Na, wenn ich euch erzähl' die G'schicht'

9 — 2wicky, Hooverphonic | The numbers likely reference the Prophet-600 and SH-101 synthesizers.

Prophet 60091.
Before we start you should know that you're not the only one who can hurt me.
SH10151.
This is the serial number of our orbital gun.
SH10151.
You better be sure before you leave me for another one.

10 — Straight to Number One, Touch and Go | Something to listen to after midnight.

Fingers, four, play, three, to number one.

11 — The Beat Experience, Pepe Deluxe | I am reminded of this song at too many academic seminars.

Here we are now, at the middle, of the fourth large part of this talk.
More and more I have the feeling that we are getting nowhere.
Slowly, as the talk goes on, we are getting nowhere.
And that is a pleasure.

It is not irritating where one is.
It is only irritating to think one would like to be somewhere else.
Here we are now, a little bit after the middle, of the fourth large part of this talk.

12 — Thousand Kisses Deep, Leonard Cohen | A list of songs that doesn't include one by Cohen is not worth reading. The sentiment of a thousand kisses is as old as lips existed. Catullus wrote to Lesbia "da mi basia mille, deinde centum, dein mille altera, dein secunda centum, deinde usque altera mille, deinde centum" [Give me a thousand kisses, then a hundred, then another thousand, then a second hundred, then yet another thousand, then a hundred.] Well, you get the idea.

And sometimes when the night is slow,
The wretched and the meek,
We gather up our hearts and go,
A Thousand Kisses Deep.

13 — Six Seven Times, Flunk | Curiously the product here is 42. This song is the answer to life.

You've got it all
Six seven times
You've got it all
Makes me feel so fine
And it's all there is

14 — 7 seconds, Youssou N'Dour | Dreamy references to a short period of time.

7 seconds away. Just as long as I stay. I'll be waiting.

15 — 100 Billion Stars, Lux | Something to relax to while you ponder insignificance.

16 — First Picture, Nikolaj Grandjean | First is the most memorable number.

I remember
The first picture
One million different shadows
Where we've been around the willows

17 — Millions of Millions, Music for a French Elevator | Very desirable. And I can't believe I transcribed the whole thing.

5.50 million dollars, 2.6775 and very desirable 8 million dollars 5.6 million and 2.4 million 3.4 million and 2.9 million 1.2 would've amounted to 4 million 1.2 million 19.4 million 6.6 million 5.275 million 1.2 million 3-and-a-half million dollars 6.453 million 8 million 5.050 million 1.4 million close to a million dollars 933.5 million 3.8 million 5 million dollars 2-and-a-half million 600 million dollars can you shut the door? 3-and-a-half million dollars 2.5 million .050 million 572,750 thousand 5.050 million 3.8 million 3 million 150 thousand 8 million 419.5 million

18 — Love Potion #9, The Searchers | I started kissing everythying in sight.

It smelled like turpentine, it looked like Indian ink
I held my nose, I closed my eyes, I took a drink.

19 — 93 Million Miles, Luan Santana feat. John Kip | A little sticky, a little sweet but it makes up for the fact that much of it is in Portuguese.

But the absence of the light is a necessary part.