Urban soundscapes by altitude

Chrisi writes in –

The idea is to experience urban sounds at various heights in a variety of cities. As feet are detected on a step, the experience changes to simulate an increase in altitude. A pair of surround sound headphones, some proximity sensors, leds and Arduino make everything work.

Being able to vary your relative altitude sounds interesting, an option not readily available in urban life. The projects site explains a bit more –

The installation „KlangStufen” deals with the sound of cities. Every city has its quite own sound which gives us a lot of information about its character. However, we mostly notice the sound only unconsciously. The visual dominates. We can capture the complexity of the space by hearing, but we see only one part of it.

„KlangStufen” is an experiment to show, how much information you can get from the sound of a city. You can experience the urban space auditivly by mounting the different height levels of a city, which would not be possible in the real space at all. You should concentrate completely on the sounds, the visual remains in the background.

– KlangStufen urban sound experience