A Symphony of Noise

Embark on a journey through the subtle music of daily life

A Symphony of Noise is an interactive VR experience letting the user experience fantastic realms of sound. Immerse yourself into a sensational symphony of everyday sounds, which are lifted into the unusual through mixing, superimposition and modulation.

Based on Matthew Herbert’s book “The Music”, A Symphony of Noise aims to inspire users to think about the way they understand music. The complete soundscape of the application refrains from the usage of musical instruments and instead works with familiar and common everyday noises. These are complemented with the user’s voice or other auditory input in order to create an individual and personal experience.

The user embarks on a journey through inner and outer dimensions of the human being – starting with the first heartbeat, he gradually moves into the world of nature, the man-made, and the supernatural. Visual hints invite the viewer to participate: Conscious breathing, talking, singing, and hand movements are all different interactions triggering something special in the digital worlds and leaving a personal auditory fingerprint.

In addition to the game-engine Unity3D, the audio tool Max MSP was also used, which mixes the partially pre-composed soundscape of the worlds with the user’s real-time live input. Thus it creates new and unpredictable symphonies every time the user plays. Specifically at A Symphony of Noise’s numerous festival appearances, this resulted in an overwhelming number of visitors as well as great replay value. For such events there was also a special technical feature: the range of interaction could be extended further by adding foot trackers so that visitors could experience an even higher degree of immersion.

NDR article (North German Broadcasting Channel): Virtual Reality at the Reeperbahn Festival

Behind the scenes