The work develops through interactions between the Internet web pages and the installation at the exhibition site linked in real time.

Original sound patterns are created from visual patterns that a participant inputs on the Internet web pages. Every time a pattern is created, the sound pattern is automatically registered by one of the linked robots at the site, and the robot moves around repeating the sound pattern through its speaker.

The entire movements of the robots in the space can be seen in real time on Web pages. (The terminals for the InternetWeb pages are also provided at the site.)

Communications of Sound by Robots
Ten robots loaded with speakers move around within a certain space/field in the installation. As the robots come close to each other, they exchange certain elements of their sound data, and after several exchanges, the whole sound slowly begins to change. It is interesting to watch how the sound is transformed through the exchanges of the robots when the sound elements, totally different from what is heard at the time, and fed from the Internet. In the field are two “infection zones” where visitors can register a mechanism to change sound elements by operating the input console in the infection zone. The change occurs on a different level from mutual communications among the robots, and when a robot happens to pass through this zone, its sound composition changes.

Sound changes, caused by different actions in the installation, immediately react to the visual patterns on the web pages. When the sound pattern is influenced, not only from a participant’s input but also from communications with other elements, it automatically changes.

In Cooperation with IMRF (International Media Research
Foundation)

Sound Composition: Suguru Yamaguchi
Robots Production: Akihito Tagawa (University of Tsukuba)
Visual Direction: Ichiro Higashiizumi