Remote Landscapes

https://github.com/blazejkotowski/remote-landscapes

In collaboration with: Eva Barrenechea

Techniques: Supercollider, Sonification, Raspberry Pi, Arduino

"Błażej Kotowski's work explores the connection between the imaginary landscapes represented in Eva Barrenechea's work and the geographical places that inspired them through the meteorological information available in public databases, updated in real time in four chosen topographies, to generate a transmission of the sound environment."

I was invited to create a sound installation accompanying a solo exhibition "Realisme Invisible", presenting the works of Catalan visual artist Eva Barrenechea. I have created a generative soundscape for is a series of imaginary landscapes titled "Mapas".

Together with Eva we have selected 4 real world locations, two of which had a strong geographical relation to her drawings, while the two remaining ones stayed in a more imaginative connection.

Eva Barrenechea – "Mapas", pt. 1

Eva Barrenechea – "Mapas", pt. 2

I have written a custom software polling public weather API for meteorogical data from the selected locations. The information like wind speed and direction, temperature, humidity or visibility, among others, were used for the sonification algorithm driving the Supercollider soundscape generator.

Two Raspberry computers with running the soundscape generators, were equipped in two portable speakers and placed near the exposed drawings hanged on the walls of two opposite corners of the exhibition room. The gallery visitors, while walking through the room, transitioned between the reach of the two sonic pieces. The room has therefore become a dynamic sonic environment, whose features were changing according to the meteorological conditions in the topographies bond to their visual counterparts, as well as a physical location of the listener.

Realisme Invisible: Gallery View.

The excerpts of audio generated after the exhibition can be listened to below.