Creative Audio Design for a Massively Multipoint Sound and Light System

Symposium:

• ISEA2020: 26th International Symposium on Electronic Art

• Matters Mattering: (Public) Place Making

• Creative Audio Design for a Massively Multipoint Sound and Light System

• Oliver Bown
• Anthony Rowe
• Liam Birtles

• In this paper we present and discuss Murmuration by Squidsoup. Murmuration is a massively multipoint sound and light artwork commissioned by the Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art, Arizona, comprising 720 individual networked devices, each with RGB LED light and a speaker capable of rendering sampled audio in realtime in an outdoor public environment. It is the first that we know of to use internet of things (IoT) technologies at this scale in the audio domain, and we present a discussion of the sound design considerations that were involved in the creation of the work and that have resulted from our experience of the work’s first manifestation, leading to future goals and design principles that will inform future iterations of our practice.

Category:

• Paper