3.0 OPEN-Expo: City Rythm

City Rhythm

by Mitchell Bosch, Xiaoqing Ji, Ingrid Weerts & Olaf Wisselink

Inspired by the ephemeral nature of footprints, City Rhythm explores how we can make footprints more tangible in an urban environment where our footsteps become obscured by hard concrete surfaces and stone. These public spaces do now allow us to leave something of ourselves behind, nor to pick up on traces left behind by others. City Rhythm tries to pick up our footsteps which normally go unnoticed and amplifies them. Inside of a narrow alley space, we want to open up the opportunity for people to leave behind an acoustic footprint.

Our installation recognizes the walking pace of those who pass through the alley and projects their rhythm onto the metronomes. With the next person walking by, the rhythm changes and adapts, as to reflect the collective pace of the city. Although the installation is hidden away in a small alley, the steady sound of the metronomes attracts people to walk by, make a small detour, and maybe stay for a while to engage with the footprints of those who has passed and leave their own.

Design & Execution:

Our installation consists of four metronomes and two distance sensors. For the design of the metronomes, we decided to use materials like rock and metal that blend into the environment of a city. After comparing the quality of sound of some different materials, we decided to use wooden rods because of the soft but distinctive sound that they produce on stone surfaces.

The metronomes were placed on the same level as our feet, so that the sound would reflect the footsteps of those walking by. The sensors were attached on the wall at waist level and in the center of the four metronomes. People walking by would be picked up by the first sensor that was placed after the first metronome, and then picked up again by the second sensor that was placed about 2m after the first one and calculate people's walking pace. The sensors were placed centrally, so that people had to walk past the two sensors, and metaphorically also through the footsteps of those who had previously walked by, before they were able to add their own rhythm.

Future Work:

Given the constraints in time and resources that was caused by the current situation, we had to limit ourselves with regard to how our installation was set up and how it reacted to the people who passed by. The current state of the installation offers a lot of potential to extend it to other parts of the city and to make it more reactive through the addition of more sensors and different behaviors.

Code:

See the code for this project on Github.