the Degree Confluence Project / “The goal of the project is to visit each of the latitude and longitude integer degree intersections in the world, and to take pictures at each location. The pictures and stories will then be posted here.” But what does the world sound like? I’d love to stick a mic at each intersection and just transmit. I think Philips (?) had a design project similar to this, ambient world or something. Probably a pretty quiet world actually.

So here’s one for the lazyweb! The author describes “Through My Ears” as:

[…] an experimental blog that provides an immersive audio experience. I will be embedding binaural audio clips that will allow you to experience the audible aspect of different locations.

It’s oddly relaxing. Give it a listen.

Testing out some new Tumblr-like code.

This is a time-lapse of an Adobe Illustrator master doing his thing. One of my favorite new Portishead songs provides the soundtrack.

How can we design compelling experiences to exploit people’s sense of smell? Displays of perfumery and taste enhancers are common. A more thrilling, if somewhat bizarre example, has been the application of modern chemical science to recreate the smells of London during successive historic periods, for a timeline walk-through at the Museum of London. Most challenging of all? Creating the smell of the rotting dead during the 13th Century calamity of the Black Death (recalling Monty Python’s classic line, aBring out your dead! Bring out yer dead!a). A laboratory commissioned to develop these smells reportedly was all too successful: the display is a repellent success.

Nike & Apple are bringing together shoes and iPods. So a sensor in your running shoe wirelessly spews out data that a receiver in your iPod sucks in. Based on that data, your iPod can interrupt your listening with spoken feedback, how long you’ve been running, your pace, calories burned, etc. When will the iPod be smart enough to dynamically change your playlist to reflect your workout? There’s a notion of a “Power Song” to help “kick a workout to the next level,” but that’s a manual thing.

Lately, I’ve been thinking about electric cars and the sounds they make (or don’t make.) There’s an opportunity here to rethink the use of aural cues in personal transportation. For example, what can be done with branding? Think about what Harley Davidson did with their engines or Mercedes and their satisfying slam of the car door? Electric cars are silent. How will that contribute to the brand? Soothing, peaceful, gentle. Or sneaky, mute and reserved?

Now for the archives. Anyone remember Boodler? It’s a tool for creating “soundscapes—continuous, infinitely varying streams of sound.” The author adds a note saying he got it working on a PDA for “permanent mobile soundscape for your lifestyle” which reminded me of that Family Guy episode where Peter had his own theme music everywhere he went.

Perhaps a little more practical is Peep: The Network Auralizer, used for “monitoring your network with sound.” The project proposal provides an overview of why sound is a useful tool for real-time monitoring of complex systems. In fact, they just take it for granted, “Why shouldn’t we incorporate our other senses into the process?” Yes, why not?!