Sound in the Spaceroom

One of the things that makes an environment seem realistic is the sound that goes along with it. Since there are at least 5 machines in the room there is no reason not to take advantage of the sound cards on them.

On a trip to visit my Dad in Alaska last year, I had the opportunity to visit “The Place Where You Go To Listen,” created by John Luther Adams. This is an exhibit in the Museum of The North at the University of Alaska in Fairbanks. A good article about it can be found here. The basic premise behind it is that data from measurements around Alaska including seismic, auroral, weather and other data feed into a computer. Along with calculated data such as the current location of the Sun and Moon, the program turns the data into a three dimensional representational sound-scape. JLA created the instrument sounds for various phenomena and modulates pitch, timbre and frequency based on formulae. There is also a panel that has a color spectrum also influenced by the data.

The room itself has 14 different speakers carefully positioned. The sound is subtle and hypnotic. It reacts to the data changing in real-time. John talked about how he was in the room when a 6.0 earthquake hit near one of the listen stations and the room rocked with just the sound. Timbre changes as the cloud cover builds or lifts. Aurora sounds like bells. It really is a wonder to experience.

So in thinking about the Spaceroom it seems to me that an aural sound-scape would be appropriate as well. I think it should reflect that state of the ship including engine sounds that modulate based on throttle and other factors (heat, damage, and other available output data). In fact all components that produce output values should be able to act as input in to the sound generation component. The main questions are what sounds should be used and how to manipulate them based on the data. What kind of software would be good to use for this. Each machine has a sound card so that is potentially at least 10 speakers spaced across the room.

The main point is to immerse the people in the environment and make them feel like they are in a ship traveling through space, or docked, or doing a landing maneuver. If the ship is performing well it should be harmonious, but if it is damaged it should become discordant and distorted. I think this could really make the system unique.