Audiomobile

Audiomobile is a project for mapping cities with sound.

It is situated in the Artist Run Limousine (ARL). Members of the public explore sonic maps by travelling in the ARL which is equipped with surround-sound and satellite-tracking technology. Individual audio elements are triggered by matching the coordinates of a GPS with the geographical location of the limousine as it glides through various urban scenarios.

As a result, an array of audio samples, sound clips collaged with looping ambiences and complete narratives, generate an ever changing audio "city scape" projected into the limousine. The position of the ARL determines which sounds are being played and from which direction (loudspeaker) they originate. This allows sounds to be perceived as emanating from a certain area, becoming softer or louder depending on the distance of the limousine from the mapped areas.

"Our technical solution utilizes the popular software Max and the output from the GPS receiver. One onboard laptop takes in the GPS stream of coordinates and compares them with the mapped ones from an interpretive Max patch. Sounds from a database formerly assigned to coordinates in the Max patch are triggered when they match the GPS (equals ARL) coordinates.

Via a multi-channel output from another computer, the 'city scape' is diffused (via Max) to the 8 channel surround-sound system installed in the limousine." For more info, please check out http://www.firstfloor.org/ARL/audiomobile

BACK