Sculpting a mobile musical soundtrack

We present an in-the-wild project to design and study a mobile musical soundtrack that enhances the experience of visiting a sculpture park. As with soundtracks for films and games, the goal was to enhance the emotional and narrative aspects of the experience while remaining in the background. We describe a compositional approach in which we first established a broad musical landscape before treating specific exhibits with detailed musical trajectories. Our study reveals how our soundtrack dramatically shaped visitors’ experiences while they remained largely unaware of its operation. We distil seven experiential factors to be addressed by mobile soundtracks alongside ten compositional guidelines

Audio in place: media, mobility & HCI: creating meaning in space

Audio-based content, location and mobile technologies can offer a multitude of interactional possibilities when combined in innovative and creative ways. It is important not to underestimate impact of the interplay between location, place and sound. Even if intangible and ephemeral, sounds impact upon the way in which we experience the built as well as the natural world. As technology offer us the opportunity to augment and access the world, mobile technologies offer us the opportunity to interact while moving though the world. They are technologies that can mediate, provide and locate experience in the world. Vision, and to some extent the tactile senses have been dominant modalities discussed in experiential terms within HCI. This workshop suggests that there is a need to better understand how sound can be used for shaping and augmenting the experiential qualities of places through mobile computing

Considering musical structure in location-based experiences

Locative music experiences are often non-linear and as such the final structure of the music heard is guided by the movements of the user. We note an absence of principles regarding how composers should approach the structuring of such locative soundtracks. For instance, how does one compose for a non-linear soundtrack using linear, pre-composed placed sounds, where fixed musical time is placed into the indeterminate time of the user’s experience? Furthermore, how does one create a soundtrack that is suitable for the location, but also functions as a coherent musical structure? We explore these questions by analyzing an existing ‘placed sound’ work from a traditional music theory perspective and in doing so reveal some structural principals from ‘fixed’ musical forms can also support the composition of contemporary locative music experiences

Considering musical structure in location-based experiences

Locative music experiences are often non-linear and as such the final structure of the music heard is guided by the movements of the user. We note an absence of principles regarding how composers should approach the structuring of such locative soundtracks. For instance, how does one compose for a non-linear soundtrack using linear, pre-composed placed sounds, where fixed musical time is placed into the indeterminate time of the user’s experience? Furthermore, how does one create a soundtrack that is suitable for the location, but also functions as a coherent musical structure? We explore these questions by analyzing an existing ‘placed sound’ work from a traditional music theory perspective and in doing so reveal some structural principals from ‘fixed’ musical forms can also support the composition of contemporary locative music experiences

Sonifying the Scene: re-framing and manipulating meaning through audio augmentation

Digital locative music technologies are transforming the ways in which we are able to manipulate and re-frame the meaning of architecture, landscape and art. In this note we explore and outline some of the key features that are associated with this. Defining the future possibilities and challenges that we have identified through our re-search in the area. Our work is supported by examples and critically assesses the relationship between physical and aural presence, examining the manipulation and re-framing of meaning through audio augmentation. “Is Space Audible?” [7]

Sonifying the Scene: re-framing and manipulating meaning through audio augmentation

Digital locative music technologies are transforming the ways in which we are able to manipulate and re-frame the meaning of architecture, landscape and art. In this note we explore and outline some of the key features that are associated with this. Defining the future possibilities and challenges that we have identified through our re-search in the area. Our work is supported by examples and critically assesses the relationship between physical and aural presence, examining the manipulation and re-framing of meaning through audio augmentation. “Is Space Audible?” [7]

GeoTracks: adaptive music for everyday journeys

Listening to music on the move is an everyday activity for many people. This paper proposes geotracks and geolists, music tracks and playlists of existing music that are aligned and adapted to specific journeys. We describe how everyday walking journeys such as commutes to work and existing popular music tracks can each be analysed, decomposed and then brought together, using musical adaptations including skipping and repeating parts of tracks, dynamically remixing tracks and cross-fades. Using a naturalistic experiment we compared walking while listening to geotracks (dynamically adapted using GPS location information) to walking while listening to a fixed playlist. Overall, participants enjoyed the walk more when listening to the adaptive geotracks. However adapting the lengths of tracks appeared to detract from the experience of the music in some situations and for some participants, revealing trade-offs in achieving fine-grained alignment of music and walking journeys

GeoTracks: Adaptive music for everyday journeys

Listening to music on the move is an everyday activity for many people. This paper proposes geotracks and geolists, music tracks and playlists of existing music that are aligned and adapted to specific journeys. We describe how everyday walking journeys such as commutes to work and existing popular music tracks can each be analysed, decomposed and then brought together, using musical adaptations including skipping and repeating parts of tracks, dynamically remixing tracks and cross-fades. Using a naturalistic experiment we compared walking while listening to geotracks (dynamically adapted using GPS location information) to walking while listening to a fixed playlist. Overall, participants enjoyed the walk more when listening to the adaptive geotracks. However adapting the lengths of tracks appeared to detract from the experience of the music in some situations and for some participants, revealing trade-offs in achieving fine-grained alignment of music and walking journeys