AVIARY
By Höweler + Yoon Architecture and Parallel Development
“Aviary is a unique interactive audiovisual environment designed by Höweler + Yoon and Parallel Development, with an audio composition by Erik Carlson. Aviary is an interactive light and sound sculpture which invites the public to explore and create musical and color compositions. Aviary responds to touch with a display of light and sound effects that evokes a bird in flight or a bird’s natural habitat.
Like a shared musical instrument, Aviary can be ‘played’ by one or many users. It can be played in many ways: taping, stroking, holding, wiping, etc. Each pole has a unique set of related sounds that range from bird songs at the top to abstracted musical interpretations at the bottom. A casual touch creates a vertical burst of light and sound, while a sustained hold slowly fills the column with light and sound. Sliding up and down the pole causes the sounds to be blended in a unique and dynamic sound effect. A quick slide up the pole causes a light burst to float up to the top and migrate to adjacent poles. The gesture is similar to the releasing of a bird, allowing it to fly up and to circle around.
Experienced in the space, users may follow the spiral from outside to inside, finding themselves ‘within’ the coil of the spiral. The surround sound effects are best finding themselves ‘within’ the coil of the spiral. The surround sound effects are best appreciated from within the center of the spiral. The sophisticated custom software takes into account a single user or multiple users, and the sound and light responses are played out throughout the whole spiral. When there aren’t any touch events, Aviary goes into a ‘dream mode’ playing through a series of ‘remembered’ touch events. It also can play a series of 3-dimensional animated graphics that can evoke clouds, fireworks, smoke, and falling water.”