CITIZEN
CITZEN is an interactive installation/art game for MacOS, and a meditation on urban soundscapes, noise, clairaudience, memory, and conformity. The visitor or player explores a fantastical city soundscape which has been created from recordings by a range of instruments; they choose an action or destination through a simple graphical user interface and the soundscape changes around them. Some recordings aim to be as representative as possible of the sound they mimic; others are more interpretive of an aural experience, or seek to render audible a visual or tactile sensation.
Over half of the world’s population is now urbanized. This figure has been growing rapidly since the late nineteenth century, and it has led to transformations in every area of life — including the soundscapes we live in. Cities are necessarily loud; the technologies of transportation, construction and manufacturing that enable cities to exist also create a great deal of sound. These sounds are generally discussed pejoratively as ‘noise’ — which has been described as ‘sound out of place’ — to be fought, regulated, and controlled. CITIZEN seeks to challenge this attitude, drawing the visitor’s attention to the potential richness of urban sonic environments.
I am a ‘city person’; I have always lived in densely populated areas, and that is where I feel most at home. In a city, listening is an important skill for successfully and safely navigating, but I also find it key to experiencing the richness of the environment around me. In CITIZEN, I’m providing an interpretation of the city as I hear it. Surprising details arise out of mundanity; intriguing coincidences or contrasts pile up; the whirr and hum of activity is constant but always changing.
The recordings were created by myself (bass viol, guitar, banjo, harpsichord, and shawm), Laura Cocks (piccolo, flute, and bass flute) and Ryan Muncy (soprano, alto, and tenor saxophones). Our auditory regimen is set up to hear instrumental sounds as musical; by using instruments to mimic the sounds of the city, our ears can hear those sounds as musical, too.
In some places, the instruments create sonic textures that go far beyond the real city, especially for water; rivers and oceans are the ancient life-blood of cities, providing sustenance and transportation, and in CITIZEN, they are imbued with a greater aural presence. And, in two out-of-the-way locations, certain text choices trigger short pieces accompanied by on-screen stories, recalling a memory that is rooted in the sound of a specific urban environment.