Streetscape

2003

Iori Nakai (JP)

Experience Linz from a completely new perspective. In this installation, Iori Nakai has chosen an unusual vantage point from which to take a look at the city—one in which quotidian elements appear in a new light, the familiar becomes strange, and old habits break down.

“Streetscape” depicts cities in the form of sounds and maps, and immerses the visitor in their everyday life. This project’s point of departure was the question: What sort of cityscape do you imagine when you listen to these sounds and what recollections are awakened thereby?

A data tablet (digitizer) is normally used to draw pictures. In “Streetscape,” it makes it possible to travel through a city and to investigate its soundscape. When the user moves a stylus to a particular point on the map, he/she hears sounds that were recorded at that particular site.

To produce his “Streetscapes,” the artist scouts the layout of the respective city and collects various different temporal documents. In doing so, however, he intentionally does not subjectively record particular sounds of the city; rather, he superimposes the everyday sounds that can be heard on site. Through the process of immersion in these landscapes, you experience how time goes by and how the people live there, and you feel as if you are being transported to this place.

Two versions of “Streetscape” can be seen at the Ars Electronica Center. On a dark data tablet, you can take a trip around Linz by night, and on a light one you can experience the urban soundscape by day.

“Streetscape” received an Honorable Mention in the 2003 Prix Ars Electronica’s Interactive Art category.