An homage is a symbolic gesture of affinity between two people. In Homages this gesture is transferred into the space of acoustic perception. Exploring the homage pieces is inextricably tied to exploring the spaces of the ACFNY. There are 15 soundpoints, and each homage is only audible in the direct vicinity of the specific soundpoint it was assigned to. 15 blue LED boxes function as markers in space and provide visual orientation for the listening experience. Between each soundpoint the visitors are immersed in a collage of field recordings from Graz and NYC. Jakominiplatz in Graz meets Lower Manhattan or the market activity of Kaiser-Josef-Platz collides with the New York Subway. Binaural field recordings create an extremely natural-sounding spatial effect through headphones – as if you were standing right in the middle of the scene.

The result is a kind of mixed reality where the experience of space interrelates with the experience of listening to the homages and the sound collages. In this interactive exhibition the visitors can decide for themselves how long and to what they want to listen to. Visitors are equipped with mobile audio players that have an app installed which was especially designed for this project. The 15 soundpoints are fitted with iBeacons, that is, small Bluetooth transmitters that enable the audio player to locate the position of the visitors in the sound exhibition. They also prompt the audio player to play the position-specific homages and activate the fade in/fade out of the sound collages.

Fränk Zimmer