# 006
PANDEV
Work in progress
Psycho Acoustic Navigational Device
By Derek Holzer [umatic.nl] derek@umatic.nl
with Sara Kolster [umatic.nl] sara@umatic.nl
[and support from STEIM, Amsterdam, NL & Garage Festival, Strahlsund, DE]
[dis]Intentionality, Acoustic Ecology and the Urban Explorer
With their prize-winning "software" artwork "Dot.Walk" [01], the Social
Fiction collective has demonstrated that the removal of intentionality
is the first real phase of any psychogeographical experiment. Once
directed purpose has been removed, and physical movements are replaced
with a simple algorithm [i.e. "first right, second left, third right"],
perception opens up and new physical and social details reveal
themselves to the eye and ear. As a result, one's immediate surroundings
can be cognitively remapped using any number of templates or schemes,
opening the way for social transformation.
Similarly, the area of sound art known as "phonography", "acoustic
ecology" or "field recording" attempts to heighten one sense of
perception--namely hearing--in an attempt to find new details and
dimensions within a given environment. My own work with field recordings
in the former Soviet war port/submarine base of Karosta [Liepaja,
Latvia] [02] sought to find the resonances of the place's history hidden
within its empty Tsarist buildings and discarded military objects. The
act of field recording, however, is an act loaded with intentions. First
one must isolate a specific object or sound, and then one must make a
technical intervention with microphone, minidisc, etc to capture its
specific resonances.
While this technique works well in the remote wastelands of the sparsely
populated Baltic countries, it does not work so well in an urban
environment. Similar attempts at such precise recordings in various
parts of busy, noisy Brasil left me with nothing but frustration. When I
analyzed the situation further, I concluded that my approach was not
suitable for the terrain. Instead of isolating and cutting each sound
off from all the others [an unnatural approach at best], I should have
thought more holistically. By this I mean to take each sound in the
context of its environment, to turn off my discriminating mind and to
remove my intention to record at any given moment.
The result of this thinking is PANDev--a Psycho Acoustic Navigational
Device.
The PANDev ?Psycho Acoustic Navigational Device?
PANDev is intended to be an sound-gathering and processing application
written for PDAs and palmtop computers running Linux. Its purpose is to
assist psychogeographers, phonographers and sound artists in the
collection and arrangement of environmental sound material for research
and creative purposes. By itself, however, it is also a piece of
software art whose integral artistic value can be taken into account
irregardless of later schemes of deployment. Likewise, each instance of
its use can be considered a unique work of algorithmically-generated
sound art, as well as a first step on the path to further mobile sound
processing applications using Linux on handheld or wearable devices.
PANDev is conceived to remove the isolating intentionality of the
specialist--the artist, the geographer, the ecologist, the phonographer,
the biologist, the ethnographer, the sociologist, etc--and replace it
with a more accessible and holistic method of gathering sounds. When
activated, PANDev will take random sound samples at random lengths and
intervals. A simple interface or command line can be given to specify
approximate times, but all specific recording is left to the
application. Connected to the PDA will be a set of binaural microphones
hidden inside quite normal-appearing walkman headphones. The microphones
will reproduce exactly the acoustic conditions around the wearer,
including such important psychoacoustic spatial cues as front, back,
left, right, above, below and relative distance.
Using PANDev
To use PANDev, all the user need do is input an approximate length of
time to record and an approximate level of randomization. The
application does the rest, and the user is free to travel through their
environment or carry out their day-to-day life. Whether the user chooses
to seek out acoustically-interesting settings or even perform for the
microphone is of little relevance simply because they will not know
exactly when PANDev is capturing sounds. Thus, a more "natural" approach
is recommended. The resulting sounds may be as banal as they are sublime
or exciting, but they are absolutely guaranteed to provide a unique
insight into the user's acoustic environment.
Optional Extensions to PANDev
Remixing Experience
PANDev has several other optional extensions. The first would be the
ability to "remix" the sound material gathered at the end of the
session, with a number of general subjective parameters including
"rhythmic", "drone", "jagged", "smooth", "quiet", "loud", "linear",
"disassociated", etc. An algorithmic composition can then be rendered
and exported in WAV, AIFF, OGG, or MP3 format. It is important to keep
in mind the extremely limited computing possibilities of a PDA [no
floating point processor, for example, which most audio processing
applications depend on!], therefore these algorithmic compositions must
be considered as both pushing the hardware to the limits of its
capabilties as well as an excercise in getting the most out of very
little. Additionally, they provide a new way of remixing daily
existance, with the aim of highlighting previously unnoticed details.
Cartographical Visualization
The second requires the use of a GPS unit attached to the PDA, from
which PANDev would determine geographic coordinates to tag all sound
samples gathered. These GPS-tagged sound samples could then be exported
to a cartographic mapping system, either in realtime via a network [see
below], or locally when each session is completed. For public
exhibition, a running audio/visual display of the sounds gathered in the
area could be maintained in a public or online space in collaboration
Sara Kolster [03], a graphic and video artist from the Umatic group.
Network Awareness
The third involves the use of either the built-in WIFI of the PDA, or an
additional GPRS module to activate the network potential of the unit. In
the first case, PANDev will regularly scan the local area network of the
WIFI card for other units operating the same software. If another PANDev
is located, the two seperate units will exchange audio data, thereby
expanding each individual's realm of experience. In the case of a
GPRS-enabled PDA, the unit could upload sounds gathered, along with
cartographic data, to a central server in order to provide either
rela-time monitoring, or the possibility for a sound artist to make a
performative live-mix of the action in progress.
Requirements
The completed hardware/software package will include the following:
1) One Zaurus, IPaq or similar Linux-compatible PDA palmtop computer
with Compact Flash expansion kit. [04]
2) One set of ear-worn binaural microphones, Compact Flash soundcard and
Preamp. [05]
3) Familiar, Debian or another similar Linux distribution for PDAs. [06]
4) Ecasound [07] software [combined with Bash, Python and/or Perl scripts] for command-line recording and arranging
---and/or PDa [Pure Data for PDA by Guenter Geiger] [08] for algorithmic remixing and composition.
5) Optional external GPS/GPRS unit. [09]
Timeline
PANDev will developed over the Summer and Fall of 2004 as a work-in-progress, to be presented and built upon at the following events:
* Garage Festival, Strahlsund, Germany [10]
* Iceland - Inside and Out, Summer 2004, Reykjavik, Iceland [11]
* PostsovkhoZ4 International Art Event, August 6-15 2004, MOKS, Mooste,
Estonia [12]
* "Baltic States Tour" [Derek Holzer + Sara Kolster] August - October
2004, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Belarus [13]
* Arts + Communications Festival, September 2004, RIXC, Riga, Latvia [14]
* RAM6 Workshop, September 2004, Vilnius, Lithuania [15]
The final application will also be released on the web as an open-source software by Umatic.nl in early 2005.
References
[01] http://socialfiction.org/dotwalk/
[02] http://karosta.edworks.net/
[03] http://www.umatic.nl/info_sara.html
[04] http://www.linuxdevices.com/articles/AT8728350077.html
[05] http://www.core-sound.com/
[06] http://familiar.handhelds.org/
[07] http://www.wakkanet.fi/~kaiv/ecasound/
[08] http://gige.xdv.org/pd/PDa
[09] http://mightygps.com/pdagps.htm
[10] http://www.garage-g.de
[11] http://pallit.lhi.is/~palli/tcmice
[12] http://mooste.ee/mogs/arhiiv/PostsovkhoZ/PS4/story.html
[13] Dates + locations to be confirmed.
[14] http://rixc.lv/03/ [previous event]
[15] http://www.olento.fi/ram4/publication/ram.php?name=map [previous
events]