On Saturday June 27th 2009, something very interesting if not spectacular happened. A very bright rainbow appeared in the sky over Brooklyn, NYC. I live in New Haven, CT and heard about the rainbow over Twitter through a friend. I saw that he posted a photo of the rainbow to Twitpic. From the photo, I could see that rainbow was pretty special. Later on in my twitter feed I saw that another person had posted a photo of the rainbow, naturally from a different perspective. It was at this moment that I was reminded about something that has interested me for a long time, simultaneity. In film, a director can show a scene from many different perspectives and give the viewer a greater sense of the event, i.e. Rashomon. This gives the viewer a greater sense of the event because we then begin to see that there is no singular way to view an event.

Once I saw that two people had independently posted photos of the rainbow, I figured that there might be others who in the spur of the moment decided to document an especially vibrant rainbow. A simple twitter search showed that over seventy people posted photos of the same rainbow to various photo sharing sites. So I began the process of manually downloading each photo, not to steal the photos, just to compile them. I thought that others might be interested to see the same event seen from many different perspectives.

Now I am not a photographer or artist. I am a musician. The reason I compiled these photos is because I am interested in representing the same concept in sound. How does one represent two or more perspectives in music? In some ways it happens during every performance. Everyone hears the music in a different way. How can music give the listener the same (or similar) sensation to someone seeing an event from multiple perspectives? This is something I intend to investigate in music further.

You can click on the photo above to see the "full size" version. The dimensions are 1650x697, so you will need a widescreen in order to view the whole thing at once. The photographers retain the rights to their original photographs, this is just a compilation. Thanks to the following twitter users who decided to take a moment and post a photo of the rainbow:

davidcorrell skreebop JohnnyDeath NewYorkology macaddct1984 libbyonline audrabrookie travelthem1 TyroneTraylor PeteAJ djensenius cameronoremac joshuahume probbins222 djchela jasonbmc bklynst8ofmind ilikenatalie EvilPRGuy bryanbrinkman buzz wllshrmn JamelTWilkins josh_sternberg DanielWalker_ winenutnyc ludorock maurawhite jasonbarnett Fallapartmike newjoseph723 shinelaw bklyntreatshppe JodyKitcher 13Rose jexe racheldanna krosel dorseystinson aliciahurst headoverheelsxo jojoannie mosmoxie natecampany sweetbrandi paulcantor kondef natedern lizzels sarahogan gregmillerfoto taylorchoi maridelreyes streebs as_i_am_4 Bamyo13 thelilsparkplug girlonferry hubflanger raganella7 eflath amig0 coolfollower kenspeckle amandabarrett gilesdickerson kristophermarx melissamango arizonamusic celialouise