James Partaik

Moving around in a public space means travelling along the grid network of streets and boulevards where everything we come across seems to exist for the purpose of being visualized. This urban grid is superimposed on a network of data that, although immaterial, is based on the same nodal logic. Both are made up of intersecting points and articulations of lines that enable functional movement. The act of travelling outside the grid (be it the urban fabric or the data array), of choosing to proceed along parallel paths, appears difficult to reconcile with that logic. This project aims at an exploration that is contrary to normal use, as it involves plotting transverse lines through the public space surrounding VOX. Each of these trajectories will be in the form of sound tunnels that will make it possible to move from one point to another by passing through every looming obstacle—somewhat like a wave passing through solid material. Data collection and sound apparatus will be developed to enable this virtual journey through the neighbourhood, offering alternatives to its rectilinear nature. [Source: VOX, 2008]