The Rittenhouse Square sound walk is the first in a series of sound pieces I will make for the city of Philadelphia. I have been working with P'unk Avenue, a software development collective in South Philly, to create a unique smart phone application that can control sound using Global Positioning System (GPS). I have been designing a collection of sounds that will be assigned to mapping points within the application, so that the listener controls what they hear based on their location within the park. The video above gives a rough idea of what your experience might be like using demos of audio I have created. To create the audio, I recorded the park itself on several occasions, then distilled those recordings to samples and made rhythmic or melodic elements from them. I then wrote a song from those elements, which will be recorded by The Mural and The Mint at Miner Street Studios in Fishtown for the final version.
This is why I think this project deserves your support: I have yet to see smart phone technology used in such a way that it intersects with our lives, rather than interrupts them. The beauty of this project is that the technology is invisible. Once you start the application, you put your phone in your pocket, and simply walk around. You are left to have an experience that is unencumbered by your device, and hopefully lets you view your city in a new light.
It also brings the forms of sound design and composition out of the confines of a performance space. There is no start time, no ticket price. You simply show up and have an experience. Yet, it is more than just cuing up some music on your iPod and walking around. It will have the same attention to creating an experience that a piece of theatre does.
And finally, the more funding received, the closer we get to developing the application into something that everyone can have access to. It is a long term goal of mine to turn this application into a product that other artists can use to create their own sound walks. Non-musicians will be able use it also, to create location based walks for their friends or special events, using existing audio. I am deeply interested in not only making my own work, but creating ways for others to make work as well.
So, although we have a monetary goal listed, this project is MUCH bigger than that. If our goal is met, we will have the funding to complete the Rittenhouse Square walk. But all addition funding will go towards the creation of future walks, and towards the development of the application itself into a user friendly interface. So please consider giving, even if our goal is met.
The Mural and The Mint is a free music project. We give all of our recordings (2 EPs and 2 full length records thus far) away for free at our website, www.themuralandthemint.com. We are able to continue to create experimental recordings and performances solely because of support from funding organizations and most importantly, from people like you. Please consider giving what you can, and please spread the word about this project. See you at Rittenhouse Square for the premier in the Spring!
All my love,
Michael Kiley of TM&TM
Risks and challenges
This project is obviously challenging, but we have developed a prototype of the application to determine the sensitivity of the GPS, and how well smart phones can process audio. So far, so good. The only step left now is to cover the cost of developing the app, and of the recording.
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Funding period
- (25 days)