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Sonic Panorama: Montreal, QC | 2008
Stereo audio in headphones, 13 min 30 sec.

This piece uses digital photographs of the city as source material for sound. Eight photographs forming a panoramic view were taken with a mobile phone and imported into a computer. Image size is reduced to 48 x 36 pixels. Color data from each pixel are converted into sound using the programming language SuperCollider. The full panorama (384 pixels across) is read from top to bottom, one line at a time. Sounds are distributed in the stereo field to correspond with locations in the view.

The Sonic Panoramas explore ways of representing place and landscape with digital information rather than field recordings. The mapping process combines a handmade aesthetic with a systematic programming scheme, not unlike paint-by-numbers.

This piece was presented at the Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art in Toronto in the group sound art show Damn Your Eyes, with Darren Copeland, Walter Kitundu, Emmanuel Madan, Matmos, raster-noton, Tara Rodgers, and The User.

Beaver Lake, Mont Royal, 21 June 2008, Afternoon
MP3 excerpt | 1:00 (1 mb)