Friday, May 20, 2011

Parsons Festival's "SoundAffects" - Transforming City Noise Into Calming Sound and Visual Display

Installation after dark showing color visual display


Part of the first ever Parsons Festival is a temporary, interactive installation called SoundAffects in which the sounds of the streets are transformed into repetitive, calming melodies, and color visual display. The project is a collaboration between Parsons The New School for Designmono and Tellart to translate real-time city noise (traffic, weather, birds, pedestrians, etc.) into sounds and visualizations. Passersby can listen to the music in person by plugging into the wall (pictured above) on-site at 5th Avenue and 13th Street. The music and visuals are also available at their websiteA sensor input picks up sound signals all around the wall, filters all of that through a fancy algorithm that assigns each input a color and a sound, and then pops out music and visuals. The installation is running through May 22. 
Parsons Festival is being held from May 13–22. The city block that is home to Parsons The New School for Design—Fifth Avenue between 12th and 13th Streets—has been a place for exploring the design of everyday urban life like "SoundAffects". There are about 200 public events that are taking place across the campus.


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