EIM Interactive Soundwalks

Interactive sound walk based in Sherbrooke, Qc, for Espace [IM] Media

For the 5th edition of EIM 2019, two artists were invited to create interactive sound paths. These are audio experiences rooted in the real world. Video game tools - Unity and Wwise - have been used to create a virtual world parallel to ours in which artists have composed, arranged and installed sound elements that respond to the walker's actions and movement. The user installs a mobile application on his "smart" phone which mainly uses geolocation, as well as some sensors native to this type of device, to explore and interact with the different works.

In resonance with our highly connected realities, this series of sound paths offers two experiences, each reflecting a different perspective on the notions of presence, space-time and connectivity. Wherever we are physically, are we not always also elsewhere - whether through thought alone or through our multiple digital representations? What imprints - real and virtual - does our presence in the world reveal? By what underground mechanics do our slightest gestures and movements register the trails of reality?

It is by relying on the notion of "monitoring" that our devices, which capture at all times our locations, our speed, the recurrence of our routes, the places we visit and even our unique walking identities, and the implications raised by these issues, that artists have been invited to create these sound paths.