When We Grow Old

A speculative auditive environment that places four scenarios for demographic change in Switzerland until the year 2070 on the Freilager-Platz in Basel.

Switzerland will undergo a significant demographic ageing process over the next 50 years. Martin Rumori and Ludwig Zeller, researchers at the Institute Digital Communication Environments at HGK Basel, will discuss future scenarios that deal with demographic change and are anchored as an acoustic simulation on the Freilager-Platz in Basel.

Equipped with headphones, a head tracker and a smartphone, the audience listens to the researchers discussing these questions in a dialog at the Freilager-Platz in Basel. Thanks to acoustic simulation techniques the speculative reflections can be experienced in an astonishingly spatial and deceptively real way as an aurally augmented reality.

Thanks to medical breakthroughs and technical aids, will people in 2070 be mobile and actively involved in shaping Swiss society at a much older age than today? Will they still be part of the working population? How much human labor will still be needed if the use of artificial intelligence and machines is cheaper, and who will pull the strings in such an economy? How will society develop if „the young“ are too few to revolutionize the traditional with new ideas? How has the climate been dealt with?

What I did:

  • Collaborating on the recording script of the play

  • Recording and editing dialog

  • Voice acting of the background dialogues as carrier for the AI-modification

  • Designing all ambiences, foleys and sound effects in 3rd Order Ambisonics

  • Mixing and Mastering the play in 3rd Order Ambisonics for head tracked binaural playback

  • April 19 - May 26, 2024

    Haus der Elektronisches Künste (HEK), Freilager-Platz 9, 4142 Münchenstein

  • Concept: Martin Rumori and Ludwig Zeller

    Sound Design: Rupert Jaud

    Scenario Development: Bernd Hopfengärtner and Ludwig Zeller

    Consulting: Manuel Buchmann

    Software and Hardware: Martin Rumori and Ludwig Zeller

    Video Version: Ludwig Zeller

    Mayor’s Speaking Role: Marianna Meyer

    AI Voice Roles: Rupert Jaud, Martin Rumori and Ludwig Zeller

    HEK Team: Patricia Huijnen, Simon Krieger, Isabella Maund and Joel Vergeat

  • ”When We Grow Old“ was funded by SNSF Agora and builds on the research results of the SNSF Spark research project “Sonic Imagination“, which was carried out from 2020-2021 under the direction of Ludwig Zeller at the Institute Digital Communication Environments at HGK Basel.

  • Audio augmented environment

  • Site-specific impulse response measurements

  • Third-order Ambisonics with headphone tracking

  • Unity-based player app for iOS

  • Open-source tracker firmware

  • German (with English subtitles in the video version)

  • Duration: 37'35''

Specifications

Weiter

Straße ohne Erinnerung