Ben was asked to do a piece for the inaugural show of The Contemporary Jewish Museum in San Francisco; the theme for the opening exhibition was the book of Genesis.  His concept was to rebuild the Holmdel Horn Antenna at Bell Labs in NJ – a contraption which was used to measure cosmic background radiation that provides empirical proof of the big bang theory.   Bell Labs physicists Penzias and Wilson won a Nobel prize for research done on this device in the 1960s.

As the name suggests, the horn antenna’ s geometry works pretty well in reverse as speaker.   Apparently the Holmdel Antenna became a popular spot for lab picnics – a computer speaker and ipod would be placed at the focal point where recording instruments used to be, beaming sound to the blanket on the lawn below its mouth.   Ben’s piece plays back the recordings of this radiation, giving us a glimpse of the sonic textures of the universe.

  • The Holmdel Horn Antenna at Bell Labs - photo Ben Rubin

  • Rolled aluminum wheel. We wanted the piece to look like some portable piece of equipment.

  • The piece in our Ainslie Street shop.

  • The nose of the real antenna is a synclastic (doubly curved) surface - after looking into trying to form the nose with an english wheel, we cheated and gave it single curvature.

  • Inside the wood box at the end are multiple speakers, one at the focal point of the horn.

  • The horn sections were waterjet cut and then rabbeted with a router so they keyed together. We clamped up with ratchets and webstrap.

  • Fifty feet of Tig welding aluminum on well designed and fitup joints. Blissful, meditative, fun.