DUBLAB co-founder Mark McNeill, a.k.a. Frosty.

Made in L.A. Soundmap is a companion iPhone app to Made in L.A. 2012. Soundmap explores Los Angeles as context for the exhibition through interviews with Made in L.A. artists and curators, providing visitors with insights into art making in Los Angeles today.

Excerpts from audio interviews with Made in L.A. artists and curators are embedded into an L.A. area map, with each excerpt—or segment—relating to a destination on the map. As the app user moves through the city, the audio segments are automatically triggered by the user’s location. In between segments music curated by local collective DUBLAB creates a soundtrack for the journey. DUBLAB co-founder Mark McNeill, a.k.a. Frosty, talks with Soundmap co-creators Elizabeth Cline and Amanda Law about the curatorial process for the DUBLAB playlist.

Amanda & Elizabeth: What kind of mood or vibe were you thinking of when choosing tracks for Soundmap?

Mark: When selecting songs for the Soundmap I had Smokey Robinson’s words in mind, “Music was made for love, cruisin’ is made for love. I love it when we’re cruisin’ together.” I thought it would be nice to create a soundtrack for communal cruising by L.A. art lovers. I love the idea that we can all be virtually connected in a city-wide tour of inspiring landmarks while enjoying music that reflects the wide spectrum vibes of Los Angeles. All of the music I selected for the Soundmap was made by L.A. musicians (for a full list see bottom of this entry). The art presented in Made in L.A. is such a great document of the current visual community, so I thought it would be fitting for the audio companion to be equally representative of the vibrant music community. We are the ultimate car city but let’s not forget to activate the Soundmap while cycling, walking, surfing and gliding.

A&E: Do you have a favorite Soundmap moment to share?

M: My favorite Soundmap moment was the first time I activated it. The Soundmap is an elegantly designed, functional tool that can spark action packed excursions around L.A. I was totally wowed on the first use and rerouted my predetermined path of duty to hit some more hotspots. I ended up seeing a much different side of L.A. than I would have otherwise and it has continued to sway me in new directions.

A&E: What types of responses have you heard from people about Soundmap?

M: I’ve been seeing a lot of people chirping about the Soundmap on Twitter. It seems like folks have really grasped the offer to take a sound tour of L.A. People have also been activating the soundtrack in contexts other than the art/info/tour experience suggested. I’ve heard from folks taking the Soundmap App with them to the beach to just relax and enjoy the tunes. Another person told me they enjoyed a great sounding grocery shopping journey with the Soundmap at their side.

A&E: What do you think is the future of this kind of technology?

M: I hope more art institutions will develop apps to accompany their exhibitions. It creates a rich experience that deepens the impact of a show, and in the case of the Soundmap, serves as a stand-alone tool that provides continued adventures long after the gallery walls have been rehung. I love the fact that this app in particular really motivates people to get out and explore the incredible city we live in.

MUSICIANS ON THE SOUNDMAP PLAYLIST
The Life Force Trio
OJO
Sun Araw
Piano Overlord
Soft Metals
Languis & Fer Chloca
Teebs
Jonwayne
Gaby Hernandez
Blank Blue
Nobody + Mystic Chords of Memory
Build an Ark
SA-RA
Austin Peralta
Carlos Nino & Miguel Atwood-Ferguson
Anenon
Daedelus
Dntel
Co.fee
Carlos y Gaby
Asura
Kutmah
Julia Holter
Adam Rudolph
Hashim B.
TAKE
Golden Hits
DJ Lengua
SFV Acid
Weave
Peaking Lights
Lucky Dragons
Farmer Dave Scher
Suzanne Kraft
Brogan Bentley
Thundercat
GB
Teebs & yuk
Andres Renteria
matthewdavid
Alejandro Cohen
Pharoahs
Adventure Time

Filed under: Behind the Scenes, Soundmap

Made in L.A. Soundmap is a companion app to Made in L.A. 2012. Soundmap explores Los Angeles as context for the exhibition through interviews with Made in L.A. artists and curators, providing visitors with insights into art making in Los Angeles today. Click here to download the app.

In response to many requests for a sampling of the audio segments on the Made in L.A. Soundmap app, we bring you just that!

Filed under: Made in L.A. Artists, Soundmap

Made in L.A. Soundmap is a companion app to the first Los Angeles biennial, Made in L.A. 2012.

DOWNLOAD. PRESS PLAY. GO!
Soundmap is a mobile audio experience designed for use in Los Angeles while traveling to, from, and in between the three biennial venues: the Hammer Museum, LAXART and the Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery at Barnsdall Park. Excerpts from audio interviews with Made in L.A. artists and curators are placed on a city map, with each location relating to segment content. Audio segments play as you move through the city, responding to your location. In between segments, music curated by the local music collective DUBLAB creates a soundtrack for your journey.

DOWNLOAD NOW FROM THE iTunes Store

Filed under: Featured, Soundmap, Video

It all began a long long time ago, when the biennial exhibition was announced…no wait, that was only, like, six months ago! Anyway Elizabeth Cline, Curatorial Associate of Public Engagement and I began talking about how we could create an innovative way of delivering interpretive materials to museum goers for the biennial. There were three items in this recipe that led us to the Soundmap:

1. We needed to create something that could stand up to the heft of a large-scale exhibition featuring 60 artists.
2. How could we address the fact that there would be multiple venues for this exhibition across Los Angeles?
3. How could we create something so that museum goers would not use their devices in the galleries and instead would simply commune with the artworks?

“Ah-ha! What about the time spent in the car?!” we exclaimed. And hence, Soundmap was born. Well, it took a while before it became what it is today. There were many ideas initially.

Do you get it? Don’t worry, I’m not sure I do either.

Initially we thought about putting rippling rings around each of the venues and every time the user traveled through a new ring, new content would be delivered. The problem? The time a person traveled across a distance would certainly vary and thus the length of the audio segments placed in those rings would either be too long or too short. Are you lost? Don’t worry. Let’s just say that this idea didn’t work technically.

Alan Stuart of One Long House drawing the wireframes for Soundmap. Photo by R. Kevin Nelson.

Many conversations with many intelligent people led us to Alan Stuart, Creative Director at One Long House and Kevin Nelson, Coder Extraordinaire. Collectively we decided to sprinkle audio segments across the city so that what people are listening to would directly correspond to where they are.

The analog version of Soundmap. Each of the yellow post-its represent an audio segment.

So if a listener was traveling down 7^th street past all of the fabric stores, Made in L.A. artist Michele O’Marah would be talking about how the fashion district in downtown L.A. was a huge inspiration to her. They call this a locative media experience. The audio is triggered by GPS, which is tracking your location as you use the app.

Artists Jim Fetterley and Rich Bott, who collectively go by Animal Charm, tell us stories about living in Los Angeles.

An outtake from our audio interview with Animal Charm. The toughest part of the audio interview for the interviewees was always the introduction.

So while the app was being built, Elizabeth and I started interviewing artists and curators. And editing, and interviewing, and editing. Then there came the testing period, along with many testing fears. We kept asking ourselves, “Can we get this thing to work?” The closer we got to our deadline the worse I slept.

Taking programmer Kevin Nelson for an extensive test drive across the city.

Kevin’s laptop while coding in the backseat of the car on a test drive.

For some reason out of all of the participating iPhone testers, my phone did not cooperate the most. I would arrive at work tense in the morning, because I had not hit any of the hotspots on my drive. Elizabeth, on the other hand, would report an almost-perfect Soundmap experience. This kept happening day in and day out. Finally, as Elizabeth, Kevin, and I were doing one last extensive test drive across the city before we submitted the code to Apple, I asked Kevin, “What do you think is going on with my phone? Is there something that I don’t have turned on in the phone settings?” Kevin laughed, “Oh, you mean the ‘Make-GPS-not-so-sucky’ button?” For a few minutes we drove in silence as Kevin fiddled with my phone and then he put my phone in front of my face. My Wi-Fi was turned off. “That’s the problem,” he said resolutely. “Nooooooo…” I retorted. A few minutes later my phone chimed for a hotspot I had never hit during the course of our testing. And now I hit every hotspot every time.

COMING SOON!
Made in L.A. Soundmap is a site-specific mobile audio experience designed for use while traveling to, from, and in between the three biennial venues in Culver City, Los Feliz, and Westwood, providing visitors with insights into art making in Los Angeles today. Made in L.A. Soundmap explores Los Angeles as the context for the exhibition through interviews with Made in L.A. artists and curators. In a first-of-its kind usage of geolocative technologies, audio segments from these interviews are placed throughout a city map, with each location relating specifically to the segment content. Audio segments play automatically as an app user moves through the city, responding to the users’ specific location. In between segments, music curated by the local collective DUBLAB creates a soundtrack for one’s journey through the city. Made in L.A. Soundmap is a free iPhone app available in the iTunes store.

–Amanda Law, New Media Associate

Filed under: Behind the Scenes, Soundmap