Machines pervade urban environments, yet their sonic performances are little considered. In this installation, visitors can manipulate 12-channel diffusion of machine sounds by manipulating a videogame recreation of urban alleyways. Photogrammetry captures and field recordings made in the Canadian city Sherbrooke digitise and compress everyday spaces. The often overlooked urban environment as a noisy and industry space becomes unexpectedly beautiful.
A Soundmap of Sherbrooke’s Machine Songs was developed by Colin Frank while he was on residency at Sporobole Center for research and artistic dissemination in Sherbrooke, Quebec in September 2023. The work was subsequently presented during Le Vivier’s Semaine du Neuf festival in Montreal from March 12 – 16, 2024 in the Sts Cuthbert-Hilda & Luke church. It was then presented at New Adventures in Sound Art (NAISA) in South River, Ontario from September 26, 2024 – January 6, 2025.
Installation as presented at New Adventures in Sound Art
An interview between Colin Frank and NAISA’s artistic director Darren Copeland that discusses the installation and Colin’s artistic practice was broadcast on Wave Farm WGXC 90.7-FM’s Making Waves radio series. More details about this broadcast can be found here, and the video version of the interview can be found through the NAISATube YouTube channel here.
Screenshots of the installation’s virtual environment
Installation as presented at Le Vivier’s Semaine du Neuf festival