type
site specific installation
year
2021-2022
concept
ARIA is a site-specific experience designed for connecting the visitors with the natural space of the natural park of Montececeri, in Fiesole, through an augmended reality soundwalk.
The name stands for augmented reality immersive audio. In Italian “aria” means air, which is the most common medium through which sound propagates and can also evoke the idea of being in the “open air”, immersed in a natural ambient.
Through the use of bone conduction headphones it is possible to have an individual augmented reality listening experience, combining the soundscape and the virtual acoustic environment in a way that it would not interfere with the sound ambient, and so not be disruptive to the local fauna.
description
The work is site-specific for the Montececeri natural park in Fiesole, a small city in the Florence urban area that is located on a small mountain really near to the main center of Florence.
The visitor is given the possibility to listen during his or her itinerary inside the park to 8 tracks, each associated to a specific location, using a smartphone and a pair of bone conduction headphones. This kind of technology allows the ears to be free to listen to both the sound content and the original soundscape at the same time, providing an augmented reality listening experience.
The tracks were composed according to the spectral characteristics of the original soundscape, so that the resulting composition could be perceived more integrated with the sound ambient.
With a smartphone app the visitors’ position is tracked and when during the walk they arrive in the proximity of a soundmark, the correspondent track starts automatically after a sound signal that invites them to stop and listen. On the app it’s also possible to view the map and read some informations about the history of the park.
