NETWORKED SONIC SPACES
Jérôme Joy Peter Sinclair
Locus Sonus – audio in art, Sonic Research Lab, http://locusonus.org/
National School of Arts Villa Arson Nice, School of Arts Aix en Provence, France
joy@nujus.net joy@thing.net support@locusonus.org petesinc@nujus.net
ABSTRACT
Since it was launched in 2004, the research group Locus
Sonus
1
has been working on artistic possibilities arising
from the intersection of networked and acoustic or local
audio spaces. The first projects, Locustream &
Wimicam, were developed from experimentation using
audio streaming techniques [9], and engage with
problematic related to the use of flux for artistic
purposes (flux understood here as a continually updating
medium) in local and networked environments. Today
our research is grouped under two main headings Field
Spatialization and Networked sonic spaces. Our
research is fundamentally practice based aiming to create
a corpus of artistic experimentation around a common
problematic. The forms emanating from this activity are
« verified » essentially through their presentation in
public contexts. The choice of implementing this
research within the art education environment is
prompted by the current renewal of techniques and art-
forms which are at the intersection of the visual arts and
music.
1. SOUND / SPACE
The marriage of sound and space (sound problematized
by space and visa versa) is at the heart of our research
and experimentation, the main pivot of our
investigations. A number of different forms are
experimented within the group, ranging from
concert/performance, through installation to web-based
projects. The elaboration of these different types of
proposition implies the development of appropriate
systems for the restitution and diffusion of acoustic and
electronic sound, of apparatus and devices such as
instruments, computer programs, interfaces and the
invention of processes, protocols and concepts. The main
part of our current investigation concerns the transport of
sound (and sound ambiances) which has lead to the
construction of streaming systems as well as sensorial
and experiential environments which favour different
listening experiences, synchronous and asynchronous,
local, distant, geographically identified, « autophone »
and « chronotope »: the networked sonic spaces. Our use
of streaming technology is unusual in that it consists of
a network of « open mikes » (web-mikes) which
continuously transmit the unadulterated (in so far as that
is possible) sound of the environment in which they are
placed: sounds which carry with them the sense of the
space in which they propagate not so much sound
sources as sound « reservoirs » [3] [11]. In all cases the

1
Locus Sonus Lab 2007/2008 : Julien Clauss, Alejo Duque, Scott
Fitzgerald, Jérôme Joy, Anne Roquigny, Peter Sinclair.
question is one of « sounding out » spaces and the
perception of their site-specific (in-situ) and time-specific
(in-tempo) nature - atmosphere, architecture, expanse,
contextualization, soundscape, perceptual appropriation -
are some of the elements taken into account in the
setting up of these microphones. This multiplicity of
constituents and instances unfolds as different facets of
our experimentation
2
: resonance (single spaces and
relayed spaces), transmission and diffusion (transporting
the atmosphere of one sound into another space),
spatialization (virtualization, composition of space),
temporality, multiplicity viewpoints (or rather of
listening points), comparison of one sound space with
another.
These different approaches are further multiplied by the
different sensibilities of the individual artists/researchers
taking part in the project. Beyond the simple
demonstration of techniques and of media technologies
the laboratory's interest lies in the developing methods
which, unlike « traditional » use of these techniques,
take into account their power to modify space and
practice.
2. EXPERIMENTS WITH CORRELATED
SPACES
The systems developed by Locus Sonus make use of
interactions, interferences and correlations between local
and distant spaces, between virtual and physical spaces.
Attention is paid to the subsequent modifications of the
said spaces whether from an acoustic, perceptive or
sociological point of view. These experiments are being
conducted through the following means:
- An evolving network of permanently open microphones
producing multiple audio streams, relayed by the internet
and by a specifically programmed server. These open
microphones are spread around the globe and maintained
by a large number of collaborators providing live sound
material for subsidiary projects, (Locustream)
3
- The conception and construction of dynamic,
automated online interfaces permitting live audition of
our « open mike » streams, (Locustream SoundMap,
Locustream Tardis)
4
- The realization of sound installations, sound
spatialization systems and mixed reality installations
using acoustic an virtual spaces. These installations have

2
In collaboration with STEIM Amsterdam, CRiSAP London, SAIC
Chicago, GMEM Marseilles, and with CNRS sociology and
architecture labs: LAMES Aix en Provence, CRESSON Grenoble,
LTCI/ Laboratoire des Usages Paris/Nice Sophia Antipolis.
3
Icecast2, PureData, ogg vorbis (next research : full access and raw
audio).
4
PHP, mySQL.

resulted in listening experiences which implicate the
listener through their ambulation in the local or virtual
space as well as shared experiences, (Locustream Tuner,
Locustream Promenade, LS in SL – Second Life -)
- The development of mobile, autonomous apparatus for
the capture and interpretation of live sound (Wimicam),
coupled with streaming interfaces for duplex or
multiplex performance,
- The development of an autonomous
« LocustreamBox » - a small computer dedicated to task
of streaming audio and configured to connect
automatically to our server and related systems such as
online interfaces or setups for installations
1
.
Within the research group these systems are articulated
in different ways, between installations and
performances, between online interfaces and physical
spaces, between manipulation and audition,
interrogating relationships between form and practice.
These interrogations offer a seminal space for the
development of projects initiated not only by the
members of the research group but also by collaborators
and partners (such as SARC
2
).
3. ISSUES AND PERSPECTIVES
As we have seen, our current questioning of networked
sound spaces is centered on modification of perception
and usage of space, the conditions which these
modifications require or imply and the way that these
conditions are implemented into systems which interact
with a place or several places simultaneously. The
artistic dimension of this networking of spaces refers not
so much to existing forms such as remote concerts, or
remote interactive systems [2], as to the social
dimensions inherent to the creation of a « circle » (i.e. a
social circle [10]) or the participation in a game. If the
expression « networked » commonly implies a multi-site
distribution of points of transmission and of reception
and realtime simultaneous interactions between these
sites we are more specifically interested by mediation,
interlocution, transportation and translation as forms of
composition (live composition), interpretation,
instrumentation (collective instrument) and listening (i.e.
the modification of the way that an audience perceives
the sound relevant to the system which transports and
presents it - shared audiences - ) : How is it possible to
« play » these streams, flux of continuous material,
factual and unpredictable sound from a distant context ?
What kind of organology is applicable to this meta-
/multi-/remote-instrument « autophone » and these
(communal) playable interfaces innervated with distant
sound flux ? How does the agogic
3
dimension (due to
latency within the network), audibly perceptible as one
« plays » with an online networked system, become a
part of the compositional spacial process [1] ? How can
the interaction and the influences between remote
acoustic spaces, which is only possible through a
networked system [8] offer new possibilities for live
performance and composition ?

1
Linux Xubuntu, nano-pcs, Pd, Max/MSP, Holospat, Junxtion.
2
Sonic Art Research Center, Belfast.
3
Time fluctuations.
To avoid abandoning ourselves to the fluidity of the flux
of streamed sound and to our (recently developed)
listening habits various lines of research have been
developed : remote acoustics
4
(LS in SL, Espaces
Chantants and LAPS by Nicolas Maigret), remote
soundscapes and listenings (Locustream), remote sound
recording and post-recording (Journal de Streams by
Esther Salmona, Streams Fictions by Nicolas Bralet),
inter-modulated soundscapes, re-composed/improvised
soundscapes and remote performances (Concert
Sympathique Mondial by Sabrina Issa, Sobralasolas !
and nocinema.org by Jérôme Joy
5
, Autosync by Peter
Sinclair
6
).
The instrument (organon) becomes the networked
system with it's inputs and outputs which can be
stimulated from the outside, programmed or processed to
produce modulations, inter-modulations and acoustical
artifacts, controllable, composable and interpretable by
public and authors alike through interfaces and systems
which hybridize local and remote spaces. It allows for
multiple recurrent or permanent operations (performing,
playing, participating) within a coherent system, an
apparatus which proposes to be experienced as an art
work. This leads us to find possible forms and practices
which « compose » with the system which we are
developing: gesture, notation, drifting, participative and
interactive listening
7
, atmosphere and imagination
(Cagean listening), a continual redefining of roles
between author and listener
8
.
As a consequence and a prolongation of this project our
explorations which continue under the heading of Field
Spatialization include practices related to multi-scaled
sound spaces (Networked sonic spaces) which could
imply the use of streaming, natural acoustics,
telecommunications, radio, and virtual spaces, it also
implies mapping or referencing of existing sound spaces,
studying the mobilization of personal sound spaces –
locative and variable media -. (Net_Dérive Atau Tanaka,
Silophone The User, City Links Maryanne Amacher,
Variations VII John Cage, RadioNet Max Neuhaus,
Sound Island – Landscapes Soundings Bill Fontana,
Netrooms Pedro Rebelo) [4]
Critical analysis plays a large part in our research, and
has largely developed through exchanges with researchers
working close to us in the areas of sociology,
epistemology, esthetics and sound anthropology
9
. One
of the notions which has developed out of these
collaborations is that of Audio Extranautes. The notion

4
Remote acoustics is the phenomenon of using a remote site as
acoustic chamber for a sound source [8]
5
http://jeromejoy.org/
6
http://nujus.net/peterhomepage/autosync/autosync.html
7
RadioMatic/Streaps (2001) Jérôme Joy & Radiostudio Bauhaus
Universität Ralf Homann.
8
PicNIC (2002) Jérôme Joy / Quatuor Formanex, Festival
Résonances, Nantes.
9
Samuel Bordreuil (LAMES), Jean-Paul Thibeau (CRESSON), Marc
Relieu (LTCI) , Bastien Gallet (ESBA Montpellier), Christophe Kihm
(Le Fresnoy), Jean Cristofol (ESA Aix en Provence).