coMIMInication is the name I gave to a soundscape design project at Chino Cultural Complex. This is a play on the word “communication,” with the prefix “co” meaning “together” in English but also “little” in Japanese, and mimi being the Japanese for “ear.” There are implications of “listening together,” “happening to hear” (or “a little bird told me”), and “a little aural communication.”

The project is intended to deliver a new type of spatial experience through audio, and featured two types of “sound windows” that provide listeners with multiple perspectives on the city of Chino itself and gateways to innumerable possible worlds.

The first “sound window” consists of a speaking tube running approximately 20 meters through the courtyard of the complex, connecting the two sides via an underground pipe. By speaking into one end of the tube, participants could converse with counterparts only faintly visible on the other side, with the other person’s voice as clear as if they were at arm’s length.

The second “sound window” is diffused among the light fixtures, floor heating, sofa, ticket counter, and other locations. Speakers embedded in these places emitted diverse random fragments of sound that intertwined with the humdrum environment of lobby and corridors.

These fragments were drawn from various sources, including recordings of performances and events at Chino Cultural Complex, and an ongoing workshop in which members of the public are asked to record everyday sounds around them. All of the sounds originated in the local community.

The fragments of sound are reconfigured second by second, shaped by the following parameters.

1. Computer:A computer program is used to cut, paste, and overlay audio sources, recorded in Chino and vicinity or at the Cultural Complex, re-editing them as a random sound tapestry.

2.Architectural space:The echo, distribution, and range of delivery of the sound are determined by the spatial properties of the Chino Cultural Complex, so that the architectural space itself acts as a sound-producing device. Sounds suddenly confront the audience at various transitional moments: turning a corner, arriving at a certain spot, opening a door, and so on.

3.Actions:Each participant has their own individual aural experience, generated by their trajectory through the space, walking speed, and so forth, in what could be called a unique “physical remix” of the soundscape.

With the three above elements to which a sound source is changed, I can avoid a restrictive expression and, so to speak, can create "the criticality of representation." Under these conditions, sound is not merely a means of conveying a message, but rather “sound as media” that elicits free, open-ended responses.

These multifarious audio sources cause recurring “sound clouds” to arise and subside in the venue. Each attendee interact with the clouds in a different way according to their trajectory and walking speed, having their own unique aural experience and setting their sensibilities free to make discoveries. In this environment, sound run past in an endless stream, connecting participants moment by moment with events occurring elsewhere in time and space. Aroused by the sound fragments undulating through the otherwise ordinary lobby and corridors, the consciousness of participants branch out temporally and spatially in a many-layered mental multiverse.

A key point is that these recordings were living and breathing, not like dead specimens isolated in glass cases in a museum. When people hear sounds coming from unexpected places in surprising combinations, each person is free to interpret them freely, mining them for meaning. Also, as the project was tied in with the workshop described above, the content was continually updated so that the links between people and sound were not carved in stone but alive and thriving.

A graphic score that represents the concept of “coMIMInication”

The sounds of various performances and events held at Chino Civic Hall, as well as various sounds collected from around Chino, leak out from invisible "sound openings" scattered throughout the building and blend into the everyday space.

The diverse sound sources create what might be called "sound cloud" that randomly appear and disappear in the space. People pass through these "sound clouds" in various ways, depending on their own movement patterns and walking speeds, and each person has a different auditory experience, discovering something from them with their own free sensibility.

There, sounds run through every moment, connecting us to "events." Fragments of various sounds are updated from moment to moment, creating a time and space that is layered over and over again, and the same soundscape is never repeated twice.

　>> Material: "PLAY with SOUNDSCAPE" Chino Website (External link|japanese)