Mad Traffic!

Mad Traffic!
Contact: Angela Ferraiolo <aferraiolo@gmail.com>
Link: http://littleumbrellas.net/2018/07/23/mad-traffic/

Generative visualization for multiple screens:
– outdoor, urban media
– infinite duration
– live computed
– computers, microphones, screens

Description: Mad Traffic! is a traffic visualizer. The installation is composed of two microphones, two computers, two monitors, custom software, and noise from the environment. Mad Traffic! uses a microphone placed somewhere in the area of the installation to pick up the noise of traffic, passersby, conversation, or ambient sound. That sonic environment is then fed into a software program that visualizes the audio as two complementary noise portraits. The visualization monitors should be placed indoors on window facing monitors. If this placement is not possible in your location(s), Mad Traffic! can be renamed or customized to visualize the sound of an indoor space like a lobby or interior atrium. This artwork is meant to be fun and engaging and to bring people together through play and interaction. That engagement is the more important aspect of its installation.

Theme: The idea of Mad Traffic! is to take something ordinary, like lobby noise or street traffic, something people usually tune out, and make it a focal point and object of conversation. My interest in public art is in the ways it can act as an opportunity for play and interaction in public space. Just as we often tune out noise in our environment, we can sometimes tune out the people nearby us in that space. By offering an instance of interactive play, Mad Traffic! attempts to draw attention to both.

Screenshots:

Mad Traffic!

Mad Traffic!

Mad Traffic!