Project Chorale: AR @ Music Hack Day Montreal

Project Chorale: AR @ Music Hack Day Montreal

Subverting public space via an augmented (AR) sound & image intervention, created by John Naccarato and Shereen Soliman as part of Music Hack Day Montreal on September 25th, 2011, at Eastern Bloc.

I should explain what we did first. We stopped random strangers on the street and asked them to express themselves vocally – in a sort of sing-song way – which we then recorded. We then created colored music notes which were assigned to each voice.

Both the images and voices were uploaded and processed via an (AR) Augmented Reality open source processor which allowed us to define certain GPS trigger points in and around Eastern Bloc where the event took place. So visitor/participants were able to use their smart phones to scan the space, locating predefined GPS points which in turn would trigger the music notes and their associated sounds: the voices of strangers previously recorded.

Projet Chorale was developed as part of a larger project which is still in development and which intends to create a public intervention between ‘Artists’ and the ‘Public’ so that they may interact and critique issues surrounding Public Space. The thematic wrapper or entry point for the project will be notions of ‘Intimacy’.

The term “Artists’ within the context of this project signifies anyone involved in any singular disciple and/or inter/multi/trans-disciplines. An underlining objective of the project is to explore and examine the emerging technology of Augmented Reality (AR), and how such a technology may be situated as a new means of expression, in order to create a new potential for interventionist and expressive practices.

The project is also very interested in any works and theories which are pushing the boundaries of creative and expressive thought and how this could be implemented with AR. Some such possible intersections may include any combinations of these disciplines: Visual Arts, New Media, Performance, Sound, Text, Dance, Animation, Social Sciences, Political Sciences, Physical Sciences, Fashion, Design, Technology, Bio-Technology, Media, Social Media, Phenomenology, etc.

wiki.musichackday.org/