Talk by Matt Smith and Sandra Wintner

Description:

Western Front hosted artists Matt Smith and Sandra Wintner for a talk as part of an external Upgrade! Vancouver program organized by Kate Armstrong.

They discussed Artist Run Limousine, a 1981 Cadillac Fleetwood limousine programmed by Smith and Wintner that could seat four passengers alongside a variety of software, media, and motion based artworks. Smith and Wintner presented the work AUDIOMOBILE, an interactive and immersive installation that inhabited the vehicle.

AUDIOMOBILE invited riders to explore sonic maps where individual audio elements were triggered by matching the output coordinates of the onboard GPS with the geographical location of the limousine. 

A collage of audio samples, sound clips, looping ambiences, and complete narratives generated an ever-changing audio cityscape projected within the limousine. The vehicle’s position determined which sounds were played and from which direction they originated. This allowed sounds to be perceived as emanating from a certain area, becoming softer or louder depending on the distance of the vehicle from the mapped areas.