Sonicpathfinder

sonicpathfinder. 2012 - 13
Focus: The project starts with an in-depth investigation of a number of situations where humans used sound-centric techniques for pathfinding and orientation. It will focus on cultures providing a high value on non-visual modes of experiencing the world (e.g. ancient hunters, merchants, fishermen and seafarers), who relied on sound when visually-oriented tools had failed (kamals, quadrants, mariner's astrolabes or sextants). E.g. Phoenicians ‘gauged the distance to a headland concealed by fog by making a loud noise such as ringing bells and listening for the echoes’ (Kahar, 1999). 

Outcomes: The above will inform and lead research towards the construction of novel grammar for composition involving dynamic media for a major interactive work inspired and informed by sonicpathfinding conclusions. Sonicpathfinder Project inverts the traditional dominance of image over sound, allowing the composer to trigger mechanisms to awake audiences’ aural stimuli, as the ground for sound-based navigation. Findings are to be implemented on a new interactive work combining 3D immersive environments with physics, graphics, audio and game engines (such as blender, unity, unreal, cryengine etc).
The first implementation is on a new work around 'Val del Omar's 1939's Circuito Perifonico of Valencia, a large scale speaker system distributed across train and tram stations, markets and other key places in the city of Valencia, after the Spanish Civl war. Speakers were not only used to broadcast fascist propaganda at the time but also to play music in public spaces and to advertise commercial branches. 

Technique and technologies: are imposed on decision-making virtual scenarios, aiming to recuperate the rules of engagement from early navigators and oral cultures structured by a dominant auditory sense of life (McLuhan, 1969). The system uses groundbreaking technology from flight-sail virtual simulators and game industry but recontextualises it in interactive media composition. 
© Ricardo Climent (Jan-Dec 2012)