There is a marvellous passage in “The Life and Opinions of Tristam Shandy” by Laurence Stern, that describes a unique map, made at one to one scale, that is a map made to fit exactly over the physical features it represents! The “Syren” project (and in fact all projects in the “Audio Nomad” R+D programme) operate a sonic cartography with very similar characteristics. Due to the potentially vast scale of the geographic area covered by the “Syren” project the system will be designed to operate in and around each of the three ports that the ISEA ship will visit with some additional points en-route.
Syren a shipboard version of augmented audio reality designed to operate with an array of surround sound speakers in one of the ships public spaces. Geo-spatial information is automatically accessed as the ship navigates the electronic charts associated with each of the three ports of call via a high-resolution GPS system coupled to a digital compass. This positional information is in turn be used to render a surround-sound (3D) sound-scape corresponding to proximate physical features.
This project tests concepts of virtual sound-scape design at a much larger scale than we have experiences so far with our prototype portable ‘Audio-Nomad’ personal Virtual Audio Reality systems. A secondary spin-off benefit ‘Syren’ will act as a test-horse for a possible development of a marine safety system able to generate audio warnings from an analysis of a ship's position within an electronic chart and display information system (ECDIS).
Each of the ports has a specifically designed ‘sonic sea-scape' - that locates (in software) sound files and apparently positions them on or around the various features of the port and its navigational and maritime structures. Special attention has been paid to local maritime narratives, histories and specifically maritime ‘keynote’ elements of the soundscape/seascape. These are interwoven with a unifying sonic narrative derived from both ancient epic voyages (as the title implies) as well as contemporary political and cultural life. The soundscapes include ambient and environmental sounds, various music and songs as well as multi-lingual voice narratives drawn from archival and live recordings.
As the ship manoeuvres through and around the port (on entry and departure) the software calls up elements of the soundscape and places them in the appropriate direction and distance - simulating a real sound associated with the landscape/seascape.
One of the principal effects of “Syren” is to suggest a series of parallel audio realities that appear to overlay the visual land/seascape and open a possibility to acknowledge a historical and cultural axis pivoting on a geo-spatial point.
This system is designed to deliver spatially rendered audio via a multi-speaker array mounted (say) on the ship’s helipad. The principal compositional and design challenges have been to work with perceptions of geo-spatial displacement wherein distance and speed transposed to volume and loudness and the large scale of physical architectural and land/seascape features (especially when proximate).
The AudioNomad “Syren” project places a strong emphasis on a highly imaginative and creative approach to sound composition and sound design in order to highlight the potential of this emergent field of geo-spatially located virtual audio. Unlike conventional sound-design or musical composition, geo-spatially located audio needs to be highly sensitive to its environmental and architectural context as well as to the fundamentally non-linear manner in which the auditor may interact with the content (in this case via the position, speed and heading of the ship in relation to the marine environment).
Conceptually and sonically, the principal challenge of the research is to develop a ‘compositional’ strategy able to deliver a non-linear but coherent ‘field’ of audio. The system provides the possibility for both (apparently) fixed and mobile audio events, as well as several mechanisms for sequencing sound files in a variety of ways.
Another significant conceptual challenge is the re-conceptualisation of sonic events in the mould of a topology, thus escaping the view of the world (and of sound composition) which is ‘object’ oriented towards one which is relational and inextricably connected – both through both spatial and temporal axes.
The project development pays special attention to local narratives, oral histories, and spatial and architectural ‘keynote’ elements of the soundscape. Narrative themes are developed form historical and cultural material and includes audio content and recordings of multi-lingual voice narratives.
As an element of our on-going development we are experimenting with server based digital storyboarding and soundscape compositional techniques and anticipate that the majority of the project development will be conducted in this manner.
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