Sonic Adventures: Enhancing Cultural Experiences through Geolocative Audio and Interactive Composition

Narrative

The chief innovation of Ricardo Climent’s LocativeAudio project was to create a framework employing location-aware technology (combining GPS, mobile devices and digital mapping) to explore new ways of connecting people, culture and space through musical creativity. The result was a new, highly accessible form of interactive media composition that focused on augmenting the aural environment for participants in real-time cultural experiences such as sonic walks and historical tours. The research created impact in three ways: (i) it led to the development of commercial applications via spin-off social entrepreneurship companies created by two of Climent’s PhD students. This in turn made the research available to thousands of users worldwide, leading to impact on (ii) a global network of creative artists and members of the public, who have been introduced to new ways of connecting sound and space; and (iii) professionals in the culture and tourism industries who have commissioned new multimedia visitor experiences.

Impact date	Aug 2013 → Dec 2020
Category of impact	Awareness and understanding, Economic, Society and culture, Technological