Sonorous Reception

Located in Chicago's central loop, the business building was originally designed by John Burgee Architects and Philip Johnson in 1987. The postmodern lobby, with a 15-metre-high vaulted ceiling of gold leaf, has recently been redesigned by Norman KelleyArchitects, with seating areas, a café and an amphitheatre that comes to life with an immersive audio experience.

The sound installation in the semicircular amphitheatre reacts in real time to the weather and time of day, generating a constantly changing soundscape. Thus, each hour has its specific tempo, each day of the week its specific scale of tones and each meteorological situation its specific texture. These scores sound through the 8 closest of the 91 loudspeakers and consist of a selection of the 15 instruments, 4 tempos and 7 keys and scales. The soundscape is triggered by the physical interaction of the visitors: their movement is evaluated by 81 light sensors and three motion sensors placed behind the perforated brass panels of the amphitheater.

The sound installation was created in cooperation between iart and Idee und Klang. On the part of iart, the task implied three development steps. During the prototyping phase, mockups were built, and the behaviour of the various sensors was tested and optimised. In the implementation phase, plans were specified, the installed technology defined and the construction supervised. Finally, during commissioning, the previously developed software for controlling the installation was adapted to the concrete circumstances and the functioning of the entire experience was tested.