LISTENING POST: GIVING VOICE TO ONLINE COMMUNICATION

Mark Hansen                                                       Ben Rubin                      
Bell Laboratories, Lucent Technologies                                             EAR Studio                   
600 Mountain Avenue, 2C283                                           111 Bowery, 3        Floor            
Murray Hill, NJ 07974                                            New York, NY 10002                    
cocteau@bell-labs.com                                 benrubin@earstudio.com                               


ABSTRACT                                                                                        
Listening Post is a multimedia art installation designed      
to convey the magnitude and diversity o f online                                                                       
communication. This unique space provides a meaningful                                                                 
rendering of a massive data stream consisting o f thousands                                                            
of simultaneous conversations. In this article, we explore    
specifically how the audio component of the installation      
provides a structure that enables visitors tmake o sensible                                                            
inferences from this complex, dynamic data. Listening  Post   
makes use of a multi-layer audio display consisting of        
mechanical noises (relay clicks), sampled sounds, a nd                                                                 
synthesized voices.  We illustrate how these components,      
together with a very simple visual display, combine and       
interact to give visitors a sense of the topics being         
discussed i n thousands ochat f   rooms, all in real time.    
Finally, we discuss some of the systems and software          
infrastructure necessary to create the complex audio display.                                                          





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