SYNTHCITY

SYNTHCITY is a generative audiovisual installation which constantly creates unrealistic versions of a city by algorithmically blending its real landscapes, objects, sounds and people. In doing so, this work aims to highlight our acculturation to modern means of industrialization, and its often-ignored impact on social and civic systems. In Soundscape theory, lo-fi acoustic environments are those that exhibit an overpopulation of sonic elements. A lo-fi soundscape is often the mark of an industrialized urban environment; The acoustic affordances of such an environment are deemed disproportionate to human physiology, and can be amplified to hazardous levels. SYNTHCITY explores the relationship between hi-fi and and lo-fi acoustic environments from a multimodal perspective: as it computationally blends organic and inorganic sound-producing objects, and resonant spaces of a city, it does so in both the auditory and the visual domains . The result is an unlikely mixture of mundane objects that are out of proportion and out of place. By contrasting the thresholds of audiovisual stimulation in various parts of a city, it realigns the viewer's perspective on what tends to be regarded as natural or comfortable in everyday environments.