The Swarm

Sound and listening are not experienced solely from the front or in stereo, but from all directions. They also affect more than just your ears; listening is done with your whole body. To explore this artistically in performances and participatory projects, we searched for a tool capable of creating the same immersive experience.

The Swarm is a sound system that surrounds you and disperses sound in every possible direction. We set high standards for these speakers: excellent sound quality, wireless operation, easily movable within a space, light enough to carry yet robust enough to withstand knocks. In addition, we wanted to control them collectively, in real time, from a single live console.

In short:

• sixteen portable, wireless speakers
• simple control from one central console
• live operation: decide on the spot which sounds are heard where
• designed for complete sonic immersion

How to use The Swarm

1. Immersive sound experiences and workshops

Create sound environments in which you are fully immersed. The speakers function like a playful box of building blocks, allowing you to shape your surroundings through sound. Because the speakers are easy to carry and move, everyone can take part — carrying, repositioning and stacking them to create their own soundscapes.

2. Research into auditory coexistence and urban living

With The Swarm, you can reflect together on the impact of sound on your living environment. We explored this ourselves in Brilschanspark in Antwerp, where we used De Zwerm to simulate fountain sounds in order to mask traffic noise. This made local residents aware of how they can actively shape their own sonic environment and learn to listen differently.

Brilschanspark is an urban park situated right beside the motorway. The sounds of birdsong, cracking twigs and wind rustling through leaves are unfortunately disrupted by the roar of cars and lorries. The local city authorities want to address this. What if a fountain could mask the traffic noise? In this approach, an unwanted sound — in this case the motorway — is camouflaged by adding a new sound to the environment: the gentle rush of a fountain.

To identify the ideal masking water feature, the city organised a “fountain audition” together with Universiteit Gent and aifoon. Using De Zwerm, aifoon created an immersive setup with recordings of fountain sounds, allowing us to simulate on site the auditory impact of such a fountain for a jury of around thirty local residents and several experts.

Read more about The Swarm in Brilschanspark.

3. Musical instrument

In addition to workshops and research, De Zwerm can also be used as a musical instrument. It enables spatial and sculptural composition; a concert with De Zwerm becomes an experience in which musicians discover new possibilities while listeners are enveloped by sound.

One of the first collaborations in this context was with percussionist Karen Willems, who explored De Zwerm, the space and her voice.

4. Artistic interventions

With The Swarm, you can enrich the experience of (public) spaces. Think of calming sounds in a hospital, a reading-space soundtrack in a library, or nature sounds drifting across a city square during the morning rush hour.

Imagine a panorama of natural sounds floating across a square as you walk to work in the morning.

The future

The Swarm is equipped with positioning sensors that allow movement to influence the volume of different sounds. In the future, we aim to make even more sound parameters physically manipulable, turning composition into a truly spatial experience. In this way, The Swarm will evolve into an instrument that interweaves sound, movement and listening.

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.