Laurent Di Biase proposes what might be considered as a practical embodiment of this idea. In a project produced during a residency leading up to the Locus Sonus symposium – Four Mobile Tracks – the path becomes the score as performers stream audio from the outside urban environment which Di Biase remixes live in the auditorium.
Murmures Urbains, by Emmanuel Guez and Xavier Boissarie, is a piece that generates a “theatre without walls” using instruction based protocols, developed on the platform Message situés. By delivering audio instructions, the project transforms the listener into a performer inviting him to play with social norms in public spaces.
Steve Jones renews the role of the busker by building on the accessibility and portability of mobile phones. The smart phone or tablet, like a harmonica that you carry in your pocket, becomes an instrument to accompany the wanderings of the contemporary “troubadour”.
Jérôme Joy discusses displacements in the acoustic environment in terms of musical practice; ways of activating or modulating the sound environment through our movements and (inter)actions.
Fabrice Metais addresses the philosophical question of shared phenomenology modified by technological mediation – the amorous relationship conducted through mobile phones.
Marie Muller mapped sounds of Aix en Provence during a Locus Sonus residency and in the resulting installation, the spectator can navigate in a schematic reconstruction of a city soundscape mapped to the volume of an empty space.
Gaetan Parsilhan’s (et al.) seeks to further sightless navigation to improve sonification design for guidance tasks. This study compares the efficiency of different sound parameter control strategies in relation to perception of localization.
Matthieu Saladin investigates the role of the ringtone in the neoliberal soundscape and the mobile phone as an “apparatus”. His project Sonnerie Publiques hijacks our mobile phones by offering downloadable ringtones that deliver “thought provoking” text to speech messages infiltrating the public sphere.
Dom Schlienger proposes the use of acoustic source localization principles (measuring acoustic time delays between loudspeakers and microphones) as a means for local positioning in spatially interactive applications.
Peter Sinclair speculates that the new power of calculation that we carry in our pockets might enable innovative methods for generating sound directly from the situation, rather than overlaying it with recorded sound.