Dave Walker

The Auditorium

An interactive and immersive showcase of light, spatial music and 3D ambient sound, designed to intrigue and inspire. Wander through a gamelan orchestra, lay in the middle of a breaking wave, or surround yourself with swirling piano notes and singing birds.

Physical Description

Construction

• 12 columns, each up to 7 ft tall, placed in a geometric pattern across a wide open space. Each column has a smooth black surface, which appears featureless from a distance. Up-close, swirling patterns reminiiscent of natural phenomena are etched into the surface. By night, the columns glow from within, the light shining through the etchings.

Audio

• Each column contains one or more speakers hidden within, which are used to play back specially-created spatial audio - a mix of natural/ambient soundscapes and soft music, which can move around the space and interact with participants in real-time.

Lighting

• The lights within each column complement and react to the sounds coming from within - for example simulating a campfire, fireflies, or rolling waves to match the soundscape, or creating falling raindrops in time to the notes of a piano piece.

Appearance

• Overall, the installation is designed to look like the remnants of a futuristic structure - long since abandoned, but somehow still functional. An interpretive sign on one of the columns explains the history of the ruins. It aims to be mysterious and intriguing from a distance, yet warm and welcoming up-close.

Seating

• Benches, ottomans, blankets and cushions will be scattered around to allow participants to sit and enjoy the music and lights. The hope is to make this a place where people will want to sit and rest, and that people will want to stay for long enough to see and hear the variety of experiences on offer.

Activity

• It will be most visually effective at night, hopefully acting as a beacon to draw in nearby people. However (subject to power budget), it will likely be musically active during the day as well.

Materials

• The columns themselves are made of an aluminum skeleton with black plastic panels attached to the surface. An inner layer of white plastic diffuses the internal lighting through the etched markings.
• Benches and other seating options will be made of plywood.

Interactivity

• The installation is designed to play a mix of specially created music (piano, orchestra, electronic, ambient, world, and more) and natural soundscapes (the sounds of campfires, forests, birdsong, rolling waves, rain, wind, and so on), all recorded and created specifically for a spatial audio setup. This means individual parts of the audio - whether a single instrument, a single bird, or even a single piano note - can be moved around the space in real time.
• Each column contains sensors (mmWave radars, theremin radio antennae) to detect the presence of nearby people - how close, how many, whether they are sitting, standing, or moving.
• The columns also contain internal addressable LED lighting, which can simulate natural phenomena (glowing fires, flowing water, falling rain) or respond to live music as appropriate.
• Combine these three, and there are endless opportunities for interactivity.
• When the piece detects nobody nearby, it can try to lure participants in from a distance with intriguing light and sound. A single participant coming close might elicit a solo piano piece, with individual notes, echoes, harmonies and counterpoint swirling around them. A (virtual) campfire could be lit in the center, with the sound of crackling logs, while birdsong skirts the perimeter. The detection of multiple people might prompt a symphony orchestra piece, with every instrument coming from a different place. People sitting and relaxing late at night might warrant softer ambient music, with the gentle sounds of waves crashing across the space, whereas many people walking around in the early evening might lead to something a bit more upbeat.
• Overall, the piece aims to automatically respond to the people and circumstances around it in whichever way will best provoke reflection, wonder, and intrigue.

Mission

Inclusion and participation have been at the forefront of my mind while designing this. I want to create a space that is welcoming and inclusive by its very nature - no walls or doors, no entry lines, no center, front, or best spot to be. That inclusivity leads to participation. Likewise, there are no buttons or obvious inputs - participation is innate. Everyone who comes close is automatically a participant in the shared experience, and their presence helps to shape the events that unfold. Some of my favorite experiences with art on-playa have been those where the interactivity of the piece is not immediately obvious, but instead is discovered collaboratively with those sharing the experience through discussion and experimentation - this is something I’d love to foster with this piece.

Philosophy

There are several facets to this: Most immediately tangible is simply “making something cool”. I hope this can be an experience that provokes fascination and childlike wonder in people who have likely never experienced anything like it. (Early tests show that this is definitely the case!)

I’m also leaning heavily on natural influences for this piece. Black Rock Desert can be harsh and unforgiving, and the physical structure is equally stark at first glance. One of the only things I miss while at Burning Man, and the thing I appreciate first when I leave, is exposure to the natural world. We all have an inbuilt kinship with rustling leaves, running water, and birdsong - exposure to these is shown to reduce stress, and the opposite is equally true. Through the use of field recordings, soundscapes, gentle music, and lighting, I’d like to bring a reminder of the softer side of the natural world which can otherwise feel absent from the desert - like an oasis. This is closely tied to the underlying concept of the overall piece (as explained on its interpretive sign): an auditory vault of natural sounds and human music, from a future in which both have died out. I want to remind participants of the value of both of these.

The playa can be an overwhelming place at night: loud thumping music and bright flashy lights can be hard to escape. I’d like to create a place of respite, where people feel comfortable slowing down, having space to reflect and feel recharged. I’m also planning to showcase a lot of musical genres which are not well represented at Burning Man (Indian classical, Gamelan, West African ensembles, ambient, classical, contemporary piano), all of which bring a different energy and allow people to step outside their usual experience to experience something new.

Progress so far…

Audio

• Custom programs created to process large numbers of audio streams, and move audio sources around in 3D space
• Custom audio hardware built to handle all the audio outputs

Lighting

• Music-reactive lighting now works
• Custom LED drivers

Hardware

• Aluminium skeletons constructed for columns
• Purchased plastic for columns
• Started CNC machining the patterns into the plastic
• First few columns finished

Music

• 3D audio soundscapes recorded
• Many orchestra and classical pieces created
• Contemporary piano pieces
• Remixing of some electronic/ambient pieces
• Throw in a few curveballs too, using recoding stems from popular artists

Next steps

• Programming lighting modes
• Building furniture for sitting on (probably CNC-cut playatech)