Location-based timeline
A sketch for a location-based timeline representation of a field recording.
I was always interested in field recordings involving shifting. Not just recording a single place, but being in constant transition of surroundings. For example taking a train ride from A to B and recording my immidiate environment.
For playing back such a recording, there should be ways much more interesting than traditional linear timelines as known from regular audio players. As an experiment, I mapped the recording of a segment of my way to work on a Google Maps screenshot of that very area in Hamburg. I have drawn a black line along the rails from start to destination, and a red dot is moving along that path as the audio plays back. To make the connection between the audio material and the map really clear, I used a discrete train trip from “Dammtor”, with one stop at “Sternschanze”, going to “Holstenstrasse”. The stop is obvious, but there are also announcements in the train giving an additional hint.
This is just a simple and rough example, but I think it opens up a lot of creative possibilities to work with field recordings, or sound representation in general. I’m definitely going to incorporate such ideas into my future music releases. There’s already geotagged sound, but technology and platforms should be soon ready to let us create and (re)use even more advanced and sophisticated data somewhere between audio, time and location.
