Echo Chamber, by Chris O’Shea, is a 3D navigable soundscape that persuades people to make noises into the space and encourages the act of listening.

In the Echo Chamber world, sound is trapped in an echo. Participants can make a sound into the environment via a microphone, where the sound is re-synthesised.

The sounds take on a life of their own, each one being visualised in the form of a 3D object depending on the type of sound made, i.e. smooth sound, harsh, long/short etc. These sounds become “boids”, refering to artificial intelligence algorithms used to describe the flocking behaviour of birds and swarming of fishes. Each boid in the chamber is aware of where it is, to avoid the walls, to chase other sounds of the same species and avoid other boids.

The whole soundscape adapts to the overall feeling of the sound being produced. The organic 3D structure moves and pulsates in time with the music and the lighting changes depending on the different sound groups that exist.

Sound is spatially positioned around the user using a multiple speaker system, as if the sounds were moving around the physical space.

Video.