Chromosonia

Community based sound visualization on AEC facade

Chromosonia is a community based interactive sound visualization for the facade of the Ars Electronica Center.

We provide the means for anyone with a portable music player to visualize the music they are currently listening to on the Ars Electronica facade featuring three levels of mapping: perceptual, informational and social.



When a passer-by connects her music player to our system, our software perceptually analyzes the contents of the acoustic signal in real time. Based on a psycho-acoustic model of the human hearing system and neural networks we interpret the music as spatially distributed forms resulting in a novel way of sonic visualization.



The adaptive and highly dynamic nature of our algorithm makes it possible for certain musical features to light up specific parts of the building. This dynamic visual pattern organically reflects rhythmic and harmonic changes in the music.