Miasma Field Modulator | 2019

A wearable synthesiser that converts pollution into sound.

The killers are invisible. A shiver runs down your spine as you, the protagonist, check to see if they are on your tail. The orchestra builds to a crescendo as they creep up on you. A rise – followed only by discomforting silence.

Noise and air pollution are two major environmental and public health concerns in cities around the world. Although the information and infrastructure to find out about everyday levels of exposure are freely and publicly available, we often filter them out as we move through our urban environments.

In cinema and games, the viewer is alerted to the presence of an invisible threat by changes in the soundtrack before the visual correlate appears. Drawing on tropes from sci-fi and horror soundtracks, The Miasma Field Modulator steers people away from polluted areas by turning local air and noise pollution data into adaptive soundtracks.

The Miasma Field Modulator can be heard on Voka Gentle’s sophomore album Writhing!, out on Leafy Outlook Records.

Technical Details:

The audio processing of the synthesizer was built using Puredata and runs on a Bela board. Air pollution data is gathered using the London Air API and a Plantower PMS5003 optical sensor. Ambient sounds are processed using a pair of binaural microphones. A single knob controls the blend between real and synthesized sound.