RESOUNDING ECHIGO TSUMARI (2021)
Resounding Echigo Tsumari is an interactive site-specific installation that is developed for the Echigo Tsumari ART Triennale. Standing on a control platform in front of a big diagonally hanging projection surface the user navigates over and through an abstract virtual terrain while listening to highly immersive ambisonic audio clips. They make a cinematic journey to a fascinating realm that is simultaneously abstract, digital and very detailed and site specific in it's audio. The virtual journey starts in the sky above the Echigo-Tsumari Satoyama Museum of Contemporary Art KINARE from there the visitors can explore the mountain scape and valleys of the Triennale region, traveling from soundscape to soundscape.
The visitors navigate with a tactile interface, they control the virtual camera by holding a kidney shaped object covered with capacitive sensors. Touching the interface right, left, up or down aims the virtual camera movements accordingly.
The bigger Echigo-Tsumari region is represented with satellite imagery (Digital Elevation Maps), on top of this dynamic 3D-graphic layers are mapped, visual effects reveal the position of the various ambisonic sound recordings.
To emphasise the contrast between the applied satellite perspective and the local reality, both a regular stereo audio layer and ambisonic layers are applied in the interactive audio composition. These layers evolve depending on your position in the virtual world, for example when moving from the aerial view above the hills to the village grounds or from north to south. The position of the field recordings is fixed on the 3D map, this enables the users to discovering and create their own dynamically changing sound experience.
Artist:
Marnix de Nijs
Sound design:
Boris Debackere, BE
Unity development:
Pawel Homenko, Plewiska, PL
Spasm for Live, spatial audio mixer:
V2_Lab, Rotterdam, NL
Sebastian Frish, AT
Curator:
Fram Kitagawa, JP
Commisioned by:
Echigo Tsumari ART Triennale, JP