13 October 2004

By Mary O'Malley

Two engineering academics have helped to create a novel experience in sea faring. They have mounted the world's largest location-dependent sound composition on a ship cruising the Baltic Sea. Syren is a sound-art project involving Daniel Woo, lecturer in the School of Computer Science and Engineering, Professor Chris Rizos, head of the School of Surveying and Spatial Information Systems, and sound artist Nigel Helyer of Sonic Object.

With the aid of a global positioning system (GPS) receiver and specially created software, the team were able to place sounds in the natural environment, creating an authentic surround-sound experience for 1500 passengers. As the ship approached historic landmarks, for example, atmospheric sounds conjured images of the era. At a fortress bell tower bells would ring, cannons fire and Handel play with gusto in the background.

"We placed sounds in the environment that acoustically appeared to be attached to elements in the real landscape," said Nigel Helyer, who created the sound files for the 41-hour journey.

As the ship changed position, different sounds would play. One minute an atmospheric track from nature's orchestra, the next a detailed account of a 13th century voyage to the Orient. These sounds were directional and give the sense that they come from the elements in the real environment. This was done by placing audio layers over electronic nautical chart information. GPS mounted onboard was used to track the location of the ship.

"The ship itself became a cursor that drove the software that rendered the audio to the speaker array," said Dr Woo, who travelled with PhD student Nick Mariette on the voyage.

Twelve surround speakers were mounted on the helipad of the ship, L'Silja Opera, which travelled from to Helsinki, Mariehamn, Stockholm and Tallinn as part of the International Symposium on Electronic Art.

The team is now working on a Virtual Berlin Wall project that will relate personal and public stories as well as a UNSW Campus Navigator project. "The art community tends to build exhibits," said Dr Woo. "We build tools which means they can be used on another project quickly."

For more information on Syren, see www.cse.unsw.edu.au/~nomad.