Sonophore is an award winning site-specific, interactive sound installation developed in 2011/12 by Signal to Noise. The project title can be translated from Latin as ‘sound-carrier’, with audiences invited to connect with the history and heritage of a location through touch and sound.
As visitors enter the installation space, they are invited to use a custom wireless glove interface, to interact with hundreds of strips of unspooled audio cassette tape. Attached directly to the walls of the space, this tape laterally spans its interior architecture, surrounding the participant and audience. As such, the space’s physical contours act as a structure on which the tape can be both displayed and interacted with.
Made up of both found and field recordings, the sound content of the audiotape used is site specific, dictated by the unique history and connotations of each exhibition space. This approach allows for sonic glimpses of the site’s heritage to be playfully revealed.