De Zwerm
De Zwerm (“The Swarm”) by aifoon is an installation featuring twenty portable, wireless speakers designed to create sound in motion.
According to aifoon, sound and listening aren't just frontal or stereo experiences. Rather, sound is a daily reality that surrounds us from all sides. It affects more than just your ears; listening engages your entire body.
To explore this artistically through performances and participatory projects, we sought a tool capable of creating a similar immersive experience. We envisioned a sound system that could surround us and project sound in all directions. A swarm of twenty speakers seemed ideal for this purpose, with specific requirements: good sound quality, wireless, mobility within the space, light enough to carry but sturdy enough to withstand some rough handling... On top of that, we wanted to control them as a group, in real time, from a single live console.
We wanted something that didn't exist yet. So we just made it ourselves!
After several testing stages, we developed De Zwerm for the performance Murmur: a speaker system with 20 portable speakers that can be controlled from one live console.
Twenty people scattered around the audience carry those speakers in a backpack, allowing the sound to really move right past the spectators through the theater space ...
We wanted something that didn't exist yet. So we just made it ourselves!
After several testing phases, we developed the first version of The Swarm for the performance Murmur: twenty people, scattered throughout the audience, carried a speaker in a backpack, allowing the sound to move through the theater space, right past the spectators. At that point, we could already control these speakers simultaneously, but all audio had to be uploaded in advance. With our current version of The Swarm, that’s no longer necessary. We can now decide live which sounds to send, where, and how. Pitch, volume, movement... we have everything under control!
An immersive sound experience
We want to create sound environments with the audience that they can be fully immersed in. With The Swarm, we can deepen our listening, shape the world through sound, and reflect on how we live together in an auditory way.
The Swarm is not just a new audio system, but also a method that enables anyone to physically and spatially create their own sound environments.
We are currently exploring different possibilities, methods, and settings where The Swarm can be used:
The Swarm and Our Research into Auditory Coexistence
Our goal with The Swarm is to encourage collective reflection on the sound environment we live in. We’ve already done this, for example, in a park in Antwerp, where we used The Swarm to simulate the sound of fountains. Brilschanspark is a city park located next to a highway. The sound of chirping birds, crackling branches, and rustling leaves is unfortunately often drowned out by traffic noise. The local city council wanted to find a solution to this issue. What if the sound of a fountain could mask the noise from the highway? In this case, a new sound – the rustling fountain – could be introduced to camouflage the unwanted highway noise.
To find the ideal fountain for masking the noise, the city, in collaboration with Ghent University and aifoon, organised an audition for fountains. aifoon set up an immersive experience using The Swarm with recordings of fountain sounds. This allowed us to simulate the auditory impact of such a fountain on-site for a jury of about thirty residents and several experts.
The Swarm allows us to create immersive sound experiences that encourage reflection on the impact of sound on public spaces. Through this approach, we aim to raise awareness of the sound environments we live in, and how people can actively shape them. In our research, we emphasise the importance to collaborate with architects, urban - and spatial planners to enhance their auditory awareness. For example, in 2023, we showcased The Swarm at the Urban Sound Symposium in Barcelona and at The Public Space Conference in Antwerp.
In this context, we also want to use The Swarm for listening walks, where participants carry a speaker in a backpack. Altogether, they create a sound composition that moves through public spaces, adding a fictional auditory layer to reality and encouraging passersby to listen in new ways.
The Swarm as an Instrument
A major advantage of The Swarm is that the speakers can be placed in every corner of a space. This allows for the creation of compositions that are both spatial and sculptural.
This makes a concert with The Swarm an immersive experience, where musicians can explore new possibilities, and listeners are surrounded by music from all directions. Our first collaboration in this format was with percussionist Karen Willems, who explored The Swarm, the space, and her voice...
The Swarm as a Tool or Play Element in Workshops
As a listening art organisation, aifoon frequently conducts workshops, to foster and explore listening within diverse groups, working together to build a richer listening culture. In this context, we use The Swarm as an accessible, hands-on tool for participants. They can carry the speakers, move them, cover them, stack them... essentially shaping and exploring their own sound environment.
With students from De Buurt, we played an orientation game where participants were blindfolded and guided from speaker to speaker. At the theatre festival in Sankt Vith, we decorated the space with sound by sorting, spreading out, or hiding the speakers. Each participant ultimately discovered their own personal sweet spot within our new sound environment. Members of Klankverbond brought the sounds of a winter living room to a summer square in Ghent. Thanks to The Swarm, we can make abstract concepts like “sound” and “listening” both concrete and tangible.
The Swarm as Artistic Intervention or Installation
We will also use The Swarm as an artistic intervention or installation to shape the experience of a (public) space through a choreography of sound. Imagine the calming effect of gently flowing sounds in a hospital, or a soundtrack that enhances reading in a library. Picture a panorama of natural sounds drifting over a square as you walk to work in the morning.
The next step: Physical Composition
We also aim to incorporate positioning sensors and make it an easy-to-use tool that allows you to physically compose sound without needing technical expertise For example, moving a sound through space by just moving your arm.
The Making of The Swarm
For the development of The Swarm, we were supported by VLAIO - Flanders Innovation & Entrepreneurship and the National Lottery. They saw (and heard) the artistic potential of The Swarm and provided financial support for its further development.
Credits
concept: Stijn Dickel / aifoon vzw
software: Tim De Paepe & Kasper Jordaens
hardware / design: Jeroen Vandesande
production: Jeroen Vandesande & Jo Tavernier
outside ear: Johan Vandermaelen
with the support of : VLAIO - Flanders Innovation & Entrepreneurship & the National Lottery