“He had built a computer program that was slowly but steadily erasing all the MP3 files in one particular music-sharing network; as the files were erased, their lengths altered another program which projected a series of pulsing white rectangles on the floor and played an eery, wave-like soundtrack. Patrick rubbed his eyes and stood up, and together they stared down into the terrifying, beautiful void he had constructed, a wolf-like face of nihilistic perfection.”
Will Heinrich http://barnabysandwich.blogspot.com/
Skyline is a data sonification and visualization environment which presents a slowed down picture of activity on a file-sharing network. A remote computer running a spider program found and gathered MP3 compressed audio files using a word association algorithm. The data from each file was compressed into a series of average values which were then used to modulate small frequency differences between eight sine waves diffused on four speakers in the corners of a room. The resulting difference tones were reinforced by controlled variation in a minimal video projection on the floor of the room.
Materials:
4 active loudspeakers (mounted at head-level)
video projector (ceiling mounted)
computer with minimum 4-channel sound card and broadband internet
connection
blackout curtains
The first installation of SkyLine was on display in the EV Building at Concordia University between April 30th and May 6th, 2007. Hardware was provided with the kind assistance of CIAM and Hexagram.
