Virtual soundwalk at ICMC Boston

Boston Public Garden

The 25th annual International Computer Music Conference happened in Boston 8-14 June. I presented a soundwalk built on the Echoes.xyz platform, which allows people to follow GPS-located soundwalks using their smartphones. My piece, Bats of the Public Garden, is an extension of my work with the concept of ephemerospheres, which I've been developing since 2022. It was part of a program of 18 soundwalks by artists from various countries which were presented in around the Boston Common and Public Garden.

I really enjoyed using the Echoes platform and I look forward to more opportunites to use it. We all got a lot of help and support from the platform's founder, Josh Kopaček, as well as the program's organizer Amber Vistien.

I think it was walking on the bridge over the lagoon, looking at the Swan Boats, when it occurred to me how much I love that city, or rather cities. (IYKYK) I lived in Boston (actually mostly Somerville and Cambridge) for years, and it's been part of my life since childhood. Though I now am very happy living in the country in Western Massachusetts, with so much quiet and calm and many fewer drivers (not better, just fewer), There are times when I miss living in Boston. It's so expensive now, living there at all - never mind in the level of quiet and privacy we would need to be happy - is hard to imagine.