Soundwalks
Music, Storytelling, and Gathering have the power of taking us on journeys that let us to heal, grow, and empathize with one another. Chromic Duo’s Soundwalks transform public spaces into places of discovery that invite listeners to reimagine how we connect with each other and our communities.
We use emerging technology (AR/VR) to bring the stories of the community that have been left out. Each Soundwalk is site-specific and tailored to the stories and voices of that community, using Gesso (via iOS + Android) to trigger a specific story and music based on the listener’s location.
Soundwalks invite us to reconsider our day-to-day surroundings by slowing down to look at the familiar, allowing for the overlooked to be heard.
About “how fragile, we bloom”:
Citing poet Amanda Gorman’s “The Hill We Climb”, “how fragile, we bloom” is an immersive soundwalk created for Wave Hill in collaboration with its Art, Community, Education and Science (ACES) students using Augmented Reality (AR).
Download “Gesso” or Listen Remotely via Browser.
Chromic Duo brings the stories of Wave Hill’s ACE's Students to reflect upon this current moment history with sound design, narration and composition. “The Hill We Climb” is a film soundtrack that unfolds as users walk along the Woodland Trail of Wave Hill.
The ACES stories speak to individual and collective experiences, creating a storytelling capsule. Through communal creation and connection, Chromic Duo creates a platform for visitors of the garden to reflect on the ways seasons bring change, and while change remains a constant, offers visitors a new way to reflect on how to support one another through times of uncertainty and to build a future arched towards collective liberation.
The soundwalk takes listeners through a guided walk in the Herbert & Hyonja Abrons Woodland trail and unfolds through augmented reality (AR) audio accessed with Gesso, an app available via iOS and Android.
Listen to Chinatown, Homecoming
(2021-2022)
Chromic Duo reimagines the concert hall’s audiences by bringing an immersive site-specific soundwalk to the heart of New York City’s Chinatown. Working with local nonprofits, community organizations, and AR, Listen to Chinatown brings stories beyond the storefront to life to celebrate Chinatown’s vibrant community and stories beyond the storefronts.
Listen to Chinatown was later adapted into Homecoming for concert performances.
Mural Art: Peach Tao
Chinatown New York City
“Homecoming” at Baryshnikov Arts Center. Photo: Maria Baranova
Mural Art: Amanda Phingbodhipakkiya. Photo: MK Luff
“In the wake of exclusion, noticing how much oppression there is in our world right now, we want to create a hybrid experience to experience concerts in public spaces that is the epitome of accessibility and inclusion,”
Emerald Futures was adapted into an installation at George Washington University for the New Music District Coalition 2021.
Emerald Futures
(2021)
An innovative way to experience music and storytelling, Emerald Futures gives listeners a multi-sensory experience as they experience the freedom of exploring the city while immersed in the sounds of original compositions.
A collaboration between New York Philharmonic’s Very Young Composers’ program, the scripted audio sound walk features original compositions from young composers (ages 12-16), and leads listeners on a path through New York’s Central Park to the Lincoln Center using a GPS trigger to create site-specific concert experience, accessible to the participant at any time.
The experience culminates with Amanda Phingbodhipakkiya’s “We Belong Here” mural as a moment of reflection and response to ending AAPI hate. Phingbodhipakkiya created the “We Belong Here” campaign to confront the surge in bias and xenophobia against Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders.
Central Park, New York City