Legatus: Design and Exhibition of Loudspeaker-Based, Environmentally-Reactive, Soundscape Augmentation Artifacts in Outdoor Natural Environments

Nathan D Villicana-Shaw, Dale Carnegie, Jim Murphy, and Mo Zareei

Proceedings of the International Conference on New Interfaces for Musical Expression

Abstract:

Legatus is a three-legged audio and environmentally-reactive soundscape augmentation artifact created for outdoor exhibitions in locations without access to mains electricity. Legatus has an approximate ingress protection rating of IP54, is self-powered, and is easy to transport weighing approximately a kilogram while fitting within a 185 mm tall by 110 mm diameter cylinder. With LED-based visual feedback and a cochlear loudspeaker-based vocalization system, Legatus seeks to capture attention and redirect it to the in-situ sonic environment. Informed by related historical and contemporary outdoor sonic installation artworks, we conceptualized and tested four installation scenarios in 2021. Installations were presented following a soundscape-specific pop-up exhibition strategy, where the exhibition venue and artifact placement are determined by in-situ sonic conditions. Legatus artifacts use high-level audio features and real-time environmental conditions including ambient temperature, humidity, and brightness levels to influence the timing and parameters of sample playback routines, audio synthesis, and audio recording. Having developed and tested for nine months, Legatus has emerged as a portable, rugged, affordable, adaptable, lightweight, and simple tool for augmenting natural sonic environments that can provide last-mile distributions of sonic installation art experiences to places and communities where these works are rarely exhibited.

Citation:

Nathan D Villicana-Shaw, Dale Carnegie, Jim Murphy, and Mo Zareei. 2023. Legatus: Design and Exhibition of Loudspeaker-Based, Environmentally-Reactive, Soundscape Augmentation Artifacts in Outdoor Natural Environments. Proceedings of the International Conference on New Interfaces for Musical Expression. DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.11189096

BibTeX Entry:

  @inproceedings{nime2023_5,
 abstract = {Legatus is a three-legged audio and environmentally-reactive soundscape augmentation artifact created for outdoor exhibitions in locations without access to mains electricity. Legatus has an approximate ingress protection rating of IP54, is self-powered, and is easy to transport weighing approximately a kilogram while fitting within a 185 mm tall by 110 mm diameter cylinder. With LED-based visual feedback and a cochlear loudspeaker-based vocalization system, Legatus seeks to capture attention and redirect it to the in-situ sonic environment.
Informed by related historical and contemporary outdoor sonic installation artworks, we conceptualized and tested four installation scenarios in 2021. Installations were presented following a soundscape-specific pop-up exhibition strategy, where the exhibition venue and artifact placement are determined by in-situ sonic conditions. Legatus artifacts use high-level audio features and real-time environmental conditions including ambient temperature, humidity, and brightness levels to influence the timing and parameters of sample playback routines, audio synthesis, and audio recording.
Having developed and tested for nine months, Legatus has emerged as a portable, rugged, affordable, adaptable, lightweight, and simple tool for augmenting natural sonic environments that can provide last-mile distributions of sonic installation art experiences to places and communities where these works are rarely exhibited.},
 address = {Mexico City, Mexico},
 articleno = {5},
 author = {Nathan D Villicana-Shaw and Dale Carnegie and Jim Murphy and Mo Zareei},
 booktitle = {Proceedings of the International Conference on New Interfaces for Musical Expression},
 doi = {10.5281/zenodo.11189096},
 editor = {Miguel Ortiz and Adnan Marquez-Borbon},
 issn = {2220-4806},
 month = {May},
 numpages = {8},
 pages = {40--47},
 title = {Legatus: Design and Exhibition of Loudspeaker-Based, Environmentally-Reactive, Soundscape Augmentation Artifacts in Outdoor Natural Environments},
 track = {Papers},
 url = {http://nime.org/proceedings/2023/nime2023_5.pdf},
 year = {2023}
}