Audio Landmarks
I am interested in physical interaction as a means of retrieving information. This piece considered the possibility that gross and fine motor movements could be used as a metaphor for the type of information they are used to access. So larger movements with limbs could be used to navigate to a general area of interest and smaller, finer more specific movements could be used to explore that area of interest in more detail.
This initial experiment involves an audio representation of the birds heard in my garden over a weekend. Using footpads users can navigate the garden and be introduced to each bird’s song. This could be integrated with a webcam to detect hand motion, which would reveal another layer of information about specific birds. The visuals are deliberately sparse to encourage users to focus on the audio.
Mnemotaxis, or use of landmarks surrounding a goal is a common way of returning to a place. The size of the landmarks are associated with proximity to destination. Humans search closer to the target in the centre of a cluster of landmarks when the landmarks are larger. In this test the landmarks are primarily auditory and their relative size corresponds to volume.
