Bye Bye Privacy - Sonic Interactions in Mixed Reality

Durham, Mark and Matesan, Marius (2018) Bye Bye Privacy - Sonic Interactions in Mixed Reality. In: Crosstown Traffic, 3 – 5 September 2018, Huddersfield, UK. (Unpublished)

Abstract

Bye Bye Privacy is an interactive installation that engages with our perception of digital privacy rights, through a mixed reality experience. The installation introduces tangible representations of digital data into real space, then encourages the user to explore and interact with those representations through the real-time manipulation of the soundscape. Conceptually, the installation looks to blend together different forms of space: the real physical space, artificial constructs in that space, and a distinct sonic layer blending the two in the form of a three dimensional soundfield. Multiple streams of modulation run between the layers that read and interpret user interactions, then use that understanding to generate music and sound. The sound output is then analysed and utilised to affect the shape and form of the augmented layer. These feedback mechanisms form a complete loop between participant, soundscape and augmented reality, providing a participant mediated experience that exists somewhere between creator and observer. The majority of both research and commercial augmented reality work takes the binaural approach to sound delivery. We take an alternate approach of working within a multi-speaker system, encircling the participants with speakers to create an immersive soundfield around them. This spatial focus looks to explore music composition as inherently multi-channel by design, and is itself part of an audio-visual landscape. We look to explore how empty space can be transformed into immersive environments, and how ecological approaches to composition and spatialisation can engage participants on an innate perceptive level.

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