sonic surrounds

At ISEA 2008, a new work by Nigel Helyer and Daniel Woo, of AudioNomad (also see audionomad.com), with whom I worked on Syren works, based on locative spatial audio technology.

The following is a re-blogged excerpt from We Make Money Not Art:

Images Priscilla Bracks

Run Silent; Run Deep by Nigel Helyer (UK/Australia) & Daniel Woo (Australia) collaborating with the Marine Mammal Research Laboratory, provides an ‘audio portrait’ of Singapore - in particular the area around the harbour. The interface of this work enables you to move through a stylized ‘map’ of the city, listening to sound recordings made using hydrophones in areas corresponding to coloured circles on the map. Surround sound in the installation space, gives the sense of a 3 dimensional map, and hand drawn images laid over the map gives it cartographic feel.

From 16th to 25th April at Point Éphémère was the Octopus Festival #5 Exhibition: Inventeurs d’Instruments.

The three works in the exhibition had a wonderful physicality and two employed found objects to add a deep texture/patina to the sonic content.

The works were:

“Bien des choses”, an array of sonic postcards by Cléa Coudsi & Eric Herbin. Voices spoke in French (presumably linked to the outward facing text of the postcard) from individual speakers behind beautifully hinged postcards, so the photos were revealed with the personal voices.

“stream Fiction”, by Nicolas Bralet is an old wooden roll-top desk that accessed global streaming live field recordings via the Locus Sonus SoundMap project. Toggle switches flicked streams on and off and I think a push-button allowed you to send the local sound down another tube into an online-accessible stream. 

“des oreilles pour voir”, a carpeted walkway that triggered an array of atmospheric sounds delivered to the listener via wireless headphones, by Stéphane Kozik.