

This pictrue shows data of Beijing's air quality recorded by American musician Brian Foo in the past three years. (Photo/ China Youth Daily Online)
American musician Brian Foo has created a song using Beijing's air quality data from the past three years.
The composition is entirely algorithmic and Foo did not manually compose any part of it, according to his website.
The New York City programmer and visual artist tracked Beijing's fine particulate matter (PM2.5) readings on a daily basis over the past three years. Using them as notes, he created a piece with music samples from American industrial rock band Nine Inch Nails. The higher the pollution reading is, the longer the note lasts.
Also, as PM2.5 and other harmful particles accumulate in the air, new musical instruments are added. As the amount of particulate matters grow, more kinds of instruments join the composition. When pollution peaks, the melody is lost in a flood of sounds made by the instruments, leaving the listener feeling oppressed and suffocated.
The music resembles the sound of "knocking on stools or tables" and is surprisingly shocking and moving, some Chinese music lovers who have heard the song have commented.
J-11 fighters in air exercise
Beauties dancing on the rings
Attendants-to-be join Mr. & Miss Campus Contest
Beijing's toughest anti-smoking law takes effect
Family lives in cave for about 50 years in SW China
PLA soldiers operating vehicle-mounted guns in drill
Blind carpenter in E China's Jiangxi
China hosts overseas disaster relief exercise for the first time
20 pairs of twins who will become flight attendants in Sichuan
Obama is sowing discontent in S.China Sea
Rescuers work through night to reach cruise ship survivors
Driving through limbo
Facing down MERSDay|Week