The smallest mammal that ever lived could be sitting right on your shoulder, and you’d hardly know it. Batodonoides vanhouteni (model pictured) lived about 50 million years ago in what is now Wyoming, and was so small that it could climb up a pencil. It also weighed as little as a dollar bill! Several slightly larger species of these mini-mammals lived between 55 and 42 million years ago, but they are now all extinct. Its closest living relatives are modern-day shrews and moles. Photo: randychiu
If I understand correctly, these are ceramic bowls floating in a pool of water, possibly in a cave because it’s echo-y, and the clinking sound is them bumping into one another. Like wind chimes, but … water chimes?
yo, i saw this in person over the summer! it’s an art installation!
the piece is called clinamen v.2, created by Céleste Boursier-Mougenot and included as a part of the Soundtracks exhibit in the moma – i saw it in san fran, and this photo is from a showing in new york:
the exhibit is a large shallow pool filled with white ceramic bowls in varying sizes. the bowls are pushed around the pool by a gentle current, and the sound created as they hit each other is somewhere between a wind chime and a haunted bell.
i sat there for a solid ten minutes just watching the bowls move around while listening to the sounds they made. it was absolutely hypnotic…
Soundtracks runs in the san fran moma until january 1st 2018, and i absolutely recommend going if you can. many of the exhibits play with sound in 3D spaces, and there are some truly wild contraptions on display.
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