- Year: 2011
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Photographs:Michal Seba
Text description provided by the architects. Acuo is an interactive audio-visual installation for public spaces. It is based on the concept by Michal Šeba, with the support of municipal projects BU2R. With its shape and functions, Acuo resembles a cosmic module which has landed in the city to observe the affairs around. Acuo sees and hears in a way different from ours.
It scans the world with six microphones and three cameras; then it transmits the environment thus captured to the inside, to emit a spatial audio experience and to screen it through a LED system onto all of its inner walls. At the same time, Acuo transmits the sound around it through a terrestrial FM radio signal and streams both audio and video online to its acuo.cz base. There, this recording is archived for future generations. In addition, the module is equipped with a “periscope” with a highly sensitive directional microphone; this enables the audience to capture audio details of the city commotion.
The crew is made of the passers-by; inside the Acuo module, they can experience the city in another way, they can analyze the events outside while contemplating the endless variability of individual output modification. From a brand new perspective, the visitors can experience the sound map of a place they walk through every day, without the ability to thoroughly perceive or listen.
