Scavenger Sound

The sound portrait of New York

Moving from Ann Arbor, Michigan to New York City shifted my life. The daily experience in a small university town is always peaceful. However, New York City, as a metropolitan, is busy and packed with a myriad of sound. In this almost always loud and noisy environment, New Yorkers seem not able to enjoy the surrounding auditory context. I miss the duck quacks in summer mornings and the sound of snowfall in winter; and I believe that underneath the shroud of noisy, New York City has a huge collection of interesting sound remaining to be noticed.

This project is a prototyping game Scavenger Sound. To have a better idea of how it works, think of Pokémon Go but for collecting different sounds.

It generates a sound map of the city in the form of a game from the user reports. It encourages people to discover the overlooked soundscape in the city, which is almost completely surpassed by visual components in everyday life today.

Some potential usage can be in the real estate industry and urban planning, in which it can be utilized as a reference when choosing preferred sound environment.