Ordnance Survey: Exploring Activity Through Large-scale Topologies and Auditory Mappings

This paper describes recent work on a largescale, distributed audio installation entitled Ordnance Survey. It explores problems associated with presenting an overview of large, complex data sets in real-time. This is accomplished through the creation of a spatially separate audio-visual environment in a manner that aims to provide an immersive experience of disparate events in a single locality. Ordnance Survey consists of an immersive audiovisual environment that is fed by a network of geographically dispersed sensors, these combine to provide an overview of activity from spatially disparate locations. These sensors may be considered as parasitic agents that feed on the activity in their local area — creating audio in relation to the proximity and behavior of festival-goers themselves, the weather, and the festival performers. This audio is transmitted back to a central listening room where it is used in the construction of a multi-speaker soundscape. The soundscape, therefore, directly relates to the complex interactions that construct the weekend’s event; tracking disparate occurrences such as people’s movement around the site, audio from concerts and the regularity of toilet visits. In the dimly lit space of the listening room the audience is presented with simultaneous audio-visual experiences that directly relate and convey a detailed yet comprehensible representation of the whole festival. Tracking the flow of the observers and the observed, the installation provides an overview of disparate events all in one place. Ordnance Survey: Exploring Activity Through Large-scale Topologies and Auditory Mappings