Hi Toni,
This is an interactive audio installation that enhances the architecture of the rooftop terrace at the Toni-Areal, located at Pfingstweidstrasse 96, 8031 Zurich. The audio walk spans the entire rooftop terrace and brings together a collection of sound fragments to blur the linear perception of time. Participants are free to move around the entire terrace and, through their choice of route, their movements, and their acoustic interactions, help shape the artificial acoustic environment.
Through “Hi Toni,” Demian Wyssmann engages participants in a dialogue with their surroundings. To do this, he uses site-specific audio recordings, archival material, electromagnetic recordings, and a microphone attached to the headphones, composing an environment that ranges from soundscapes to electroacoustic compositions. Through the audio walk, we listen to the rooftop terrace and can move through an acoustic environment that would otherwise remain hidden from us under normal circumstances. In “Hi Toni,” the electromagnetic fields of the solar panels, the long-faded cries of an exhausted student, the inaudible rustling of leaves, and the wasp nest we’d rather avoid are captured and come to life when we visit them.
“Hi Toni” was developed in collaboration with the “H.E.I. Campus” research project, an artistic exploration of audible transformations on the HSM Basel campus. The project utilizes RWA technology developed at the FHNW in collaboration with Atelier Hauert and Reichmuth, which enables participants to explore an environment using headphones that track their position and head orientation in high resolution.
Bye Toni