Brixham Immersed

Description

This immersive experience for MetaQuest presents a combination of still point cloud renders of public and hidden spaces captured with LiDAR cameras that are brought to life by 2nd Order Ambisonic (Core Octomic) and spot field recordings (conventional & hydrophone). The project reimagines the practice of site analysis in early-stage architectural design.

The work focuses on Brixham in Devon, an iconic fishing town and home to England’s largest commercial fishing fleet. The project treats the town’s main carpark as it’s subject, detailing the activity within and around the many narrow alley ways and architectural features. The site is a topic of fierce debate within the community as to whether it should be reclaimed as community space or continue to act as parking for tourist and commercial income that has overtaken since the fishing industry’s decline.

The project was a collaboration between Brixham based architectural firm Charlick + Nicholson, sound recordist & creative technologist Luke Reed (UWE CTLab), & computational architect Merate Barakat (UWE CABER). The aim of the project was to capture a site of interest using novel immersive technologies and present the snapshots in a format that was audio forward and spatially suggestive.

Architectural site analysis is primarily a visual only practice with the sounding environment rarely treated outside of the context of noise abatement. The snapshots of the site reveal the roles of voice, transit, technology, ecology, work and ceremony in our sounding environment.

The work exposes, explores and juxtaposes the concepts of perceptual fidelity, sensorial hierarchy, presence, and ecological deep listening by presenting spatial, sonic, and temporal cues in traditionally photographic, illustrative and vision-only context.

On Boarding Video

This video shows the basic controls and locomotion methods used in the VR experience. It is shown on a screen in the performance space before participants are introduced to the experience.

Pictures from showings of Brixham Immersed at Everyday is Spatial (University of Gloucester) and Sound/Image Festival (University of Greenwhich).