Where art and science meet

UNSW researchers have won a major grant for a project described as “cutting-edge in arts and science research”.

Entitled Audio Nomad, the project aims to develop a hand-held wireless device that can provide users with a unique “audio experience”. Using global positioning technology (GPS), the device can provide sounds that depend on where you are and what you are doing. This could involve re-creation of sounds associated with the past of the particular site, combined with an oral history.

The work is a collaboration between sound artist Dr Nigel Helyer and two researchers from UNSW’s faculty of engineering: Dr Daniel Woo of the Human Computer Interface Laboratory, School of Computer Science and Engineering and Professor Chris Rizos of the Satellite Navigation and Positioning Laboratory, in the School of Surveying and Spatial Information Systems.

Dr Woo says the device could allow the user to retrace the course of the now demolished Berlin Wall or guide children through the Powerhouse Museum’s Observatory Hill site in Sydney. For sound art installations, the possibilities are limitless.

“As engineers, we are providing the spatial information database, audio tools and usability engineering, delivering it to the user in a small hand held package,” says Dr Woo. “But this is not just an engineering project – it involves using sound as an artistic medium. Working closely with a sound artist throughout the project will provide insight into the creative process required to design such novel audio experiences”.

Audio Nomad is one of two projects to receive the first grants awarded under the Australia Council’s new media arts program, Synapse, and the Australian Research Council’s Linkage Projects program. The Minister for Education Science and Training, Dr Brendan Nelson, and the Minister for the Arts and Sport, Senator Rod Kemp jointly announced the grants in Canberra yesterday. Host institution for the second project is the University of Sydney. The two projects are cited as highlighting the “great potential for science and artists to enhance each others’ research”.

The funding, over three years, includes more than $200,000 from ARC, $120,000 in cash and kind from the Australia Council and $180,000 in-kind from partner organization Sonic Architecture.