The City of Melbourne’s 24-hour pedestrian counting system measures the daily activity of pedestrians. Updated hourly, the data captured by thirty-five of the forty sensors installed around Melbourne’s CBD is sonified in real time. The sonic unfolding of pedestrians’ movements is transmitted through the Signal Sound system at Les Erdi Plaza, enabling a listening mode of examination, to the everyday rhythm of commuters. With the current proliferation of ubiquitous online monitoring, what does it mean to have our daily footsteps counted in the urban terrain of a ‘smart city’?
Commissioned by Emily Siddons, If the City Could Speak Festival,
22 – 29th September, Melbourne.
Stereo version for Chronopolis Internet radio broadcast.
Bio:
Jasmine Guffond focuses on electronic composition across music and sound art contexts. Her practice spans live performance, recording and the capacity of sound installation to interrogate site. Working at the interface of social, political and technical infrastructures, through the sonification of data she addresses the potential of sound to engage with contemporary political questions.
She has exhibited internationally, performed live at music and electronic art festivals, and recorded music for CD and 12inch vinyl releases with the Staubgold, Monika Enterprise and Sonic Pieces labels. In 2016 she received the ‘Working Grant for New Music und Sound Art’ from the Berlin Senate.