How it turned out

The final version of 'You are here' was a small tent-like structure in the Alison House (although it could be set up anywhere, it was not site-specific), about 8 meters square. Inside the tent were four Genelec speakers, two ultrasonic and three infared sensors, a laptop (MacBook), audio interface (M-Audio FireWire 410), and the Arduino Box. The sensors, computer, audio interface, and Arduino were hidden from view with black fabric, and the structure was made from tent poles and covered with bedsheets.

The idea to cover everything came quite late in the process, but proved priceless. Once the area was covered people lost their inhibitions about exploring the space. Many people remarked that it felt like the forts they would build when they were children. It created an atmosphere where people wanted to have fun, rather than do the "right" movements.

A single switch dangled from the ceiling of the tent. The sound would not startup right away when the user walked into the area and turned on the switch, however, as I found that people needed to be encouraged to move around. I therefore made the switch turn on the system, but the sound would only start once the user had explored the space. This was largely successful, as it showed the listener that their movements were, in fact, having a direct effect on the sound they were hearing. Quite often the sound would start just as the user was beginning to wonder if it was working, giving them a bit of a shock!

Another way I encouraged the users to explore the space was by beginning the sound design with a recording of myself explaining my project to a friend: "I'm making this, kind of, uh, dimensional composition, basically. Where there, it's a composition is going, uh, but the user who's walking around the room will access different dimensions of the composition." This was a simple way of using the sound itself to explain to every listener what is going on - I wanted as little written or graphical help as possible.

The sound environment contained three distinct compositions that were triggered depending on the motion of the listener. If they did not move around very much, a composition entitled 'BeepBeepBeepBeep' would play all the way through (about six minutes). It is a piece comprised of fragments of discussions with friends and classmates regarding the nature of sound, especially in terms of Schafer's idea of "soundscape". These are interwoven with field recordings from the Borders of Scotland and downtown Edinburgh, as well as my own piano playing. Moving around the space changed what levels of the composition were heard - the listener could shift between the sound of Tesco's and the Water of Leith, for example, and if they leaned very close to the speaker they could just make out some whispering.

The computer would keep track of how much the user was exploring the space by counting how often they reached the extreme edges. If they moved around enough they would trigger one of two songs, 'Nights When I Am Lonely' or 'Heading Home'. These two pieces, one a hip-hop style instrumental and the other a folky vocal song, could be explored in much the same way. Different layers of the piece, in terms of instrumentation and arrangment, could be controlled by the location of the user, and certain parameters (delays, filters, etc) could be manipulated as well. Once the user had explored that song the sound environment would revert to 'BeepBeepBeepBeep' where they left off.