Here Is Where You Heard the Ocean:
An Interactive Sound Installation Laura L. Clemons

laurac@well.sf.ca.us

Walking the actual environment of the ocean's shore with its rhythm of pounding waters muffling all other sounds is a calm, meditative experience in which one may automatically ponder one's own life. Memories easily come into mind. Here Is Where You Heard the Ocean is a digital realization of this experience.

Through a narrow doorway the viewer enters a rectangular space (9 x 12 ft) by walking upon sand and gravel in order to view an opposite wall of projected ocean video. The ocean video illuminates the space. The silver-painted walls reflect the flickering blue glow of the video. Sounds of the ocean surround the viewer. The ocean pounds. Seagulls cry. The wind blows. The projected ocean waves continuously wash ashore. Their motion stutters, as if time were slowed down. Centered in the space, a blue spotlight casts a circular, blue glow onto the sand. Beyond the blue glow, dimly illuminated, are several pieces of driftwood, weathered by time and erosion.

Walking towards the driftwood, the viewer may pass into the area of the round blue glow and immediately hear not only the ocean but also other layers of sounds, which I call the soundtrack of memories. This soundtrack incorporates personal and historical events, sounds and music that I have collected. Memories include a spaceship countdown to lift-off, montaged against a preacher preaching about "outer space"; a child building his sand castle; Oliver North discussing his innocence in the Iran-Contra affair as George Bush announces the war in Kuwait---overshadowed by bombs and explosions of war.

The viewer may interact with this soundtrack of memories. The physical presence of the viewer, in proximity to the blue spotlight, determines the control of the sound. The action of stepping into and outside of the blue glow causes the memories to pause and play. Standing at this "ocean's shore," viewers can create their own associations for the memories they hear.

Here Is Where You Heard the Ocean was produced with the technical collaboration of Joe Rosen. Additional contributors were on-line editor Jose Salleres and microcomputer engineer Guy Marsden.

The soundtracks and video for Here Is Where You Heard the Ocean were edited on the Avid Media Composer. The original audio before the process of editing, when digitized in 16-bit 44-kHz audio, uses a gigabyte of storage. The interactive audio track of memories is composed of nine short separate memories connected by a radio tune-in sound. The ocean video and audio play continuously from a laser-disc player. A proximity sensor acts as the device that controls the hidden interactivity. The sensor determines the presence of a person and plays or pauses the soundtrack of memories depending on the location of the person. Joe Rosen custom-wrote and built the original program, which combined a program in "C," an AIFF sound file, and a microcomputer controller. In this format, the work was installed as a technical presentation at the Interactive Telecommunications Program in May 1994.

The work currently runs through a microcomputer controller and a compact disk (CD) player, custom-built by Guy Marsden. The audio is on a CD. In this format, the work was installed as part of "Inter-Active, Electronic Art Channels" at Trenton State College in 1995.