CyberJournalist.net: How and why did you
create SonicMemorial.org?
Sue:
For the past 8 years we have been creating spaces online for
people to share their stories and experiences in an effort to
create communities and dialogue around major issues.
akaKURDISTAN.com, Re:Vietnam - Stories Since the War, and
360degrees are just a few examples. Our projects tend to exist
in the nexus of art, documentary, journalism, and oral history.
Like so many other artists and New Yorkers, we felt a
tremendous need to create after 9/11. We had such a strong
impulse to lend our skills and talents in whatever way we could.
When we met up with the Kitchen Sisters who were just starting
The Sonic Memorial Project, it immediately struck us that this
was the right thing do, that The Sonic Memorial Project was a
perfect fit for us. The Sonic Memorial Project needed not just a
website but a place to collect and preserve sounds and stories.
And we knew the site had to be meditative and evocative. These
stories are so profound, so intense many of them, we knew we had
to create the appropriate space in which to listen. That is why
we started developing the Sonic Browser.
We were also really fascinated by the challenge of creating a
website based on sound. Voices, audio fragments, especially
voicemails, are so intimate, they bring you to another place and
time so quickly. But, it's unusual to have sound guide us on the
web. We are almost always expecting words and images to do that.
In the Sonic Browser, we let the visuals-- animated vertical
lines of blue and orange-- support the sound. In this way, the
stories and documentation of events and people can really come
to the fore.
CyberJournalist.net: The Sonic Browser is
fascinating. Please elaborate on how it works and what people
can do with it.
Sue: Thank you for your kind words. We've been getting
great feedback. We were worried that by using Flash that we
would leave some people out but it is such a simple plug-in and
I think because of the content, people are willing to experiment
a bit. We put people in a space with new rules...you need to
play a little bit when you enter the space in order to
understand how it works. And everyone seems incredibly willing
to do that.
It's developed in Flash MX. We created a database to manage
all of the sounds that we have been collecting. In the archive
you can search them by keywords but in the browser it is a bit
more of a journey. The sounds are given to you randomly when you
enter the space. We selected some of the most powerful and
varied sounds for the browser. You get somewhere between 50 to
200 sounds when you begin (depending on your OS). Each blue line
on the screen represents a single sound-- a story, a voicemail,
an archival recording, old radio broadcasts. When you rollover
the line you get the title of the piece. The lines bend in
response to the cursor as you roll across them so the effect is
something like strumming them. When you click on the line, the
sound loads and begins to play and the line turns into an
undulating sound wave.
If you click on a line while the sound is playing you will
find more information about the sound. Who recorded it, when,
where. In many cases, people have contributed photographs to
accompany their sounds. These images appear whenever they are
available. Rolling off a line will make the sound fade out.
Not surprisingly, the experience is much more fluid on a fast
connection. Modem users can still hear sounds but there is a
little more waiting involved.
CyberJournalist.net: Why did you choose this
approach?
Sue:
When we developed the Sonic Browser, we intended for it to
be a space where people can linger, where people can wander
around, explore and reflect as you would in a physical space. We
see this as a virtual memorial but a living one that can grow
over time as people leave traces of themselves there. We didn't
want it to be somber because so many of the stories in the
archive are about the life and spirit of the place, people and
time. They are glimpses into a microcosm of life preserved
precisely because of the events of 9/11. Even now, after months
of editing and living with this material we find ourselves
spending time wandering through the Sonic Browser, spending much
more time there than we ever could have imagined. You never know
what you will come across and the stories that we selected for
the browser are so diverse-- a voicemail about a woman who found
a cricket at the observation deck, ambient recordings of the
elevators, a radio broadcast of Philippe Petit who walked a
tightrope between the buildings, an interview with the mother of
a Mohawk Ironworker, a voicemail from a worker at Fresh Kills.
CyberJournalist.net: How was the Sonic Browser
built?
Alison: We developed The Sonic Browser with new-media
company dotsperich, with database programming by technologist
Julian Bleeker. The front-end of the browser was developed in
Flash MX and as the visitor rolls over the vertical lines that
move slowly across the screen, they see the title of the sound
that is housed by that line and the name of the contributor.
When the line is clicked, the audio begins to buffer and stream,
called from the database archive of sound (a MySQL database on a
Tomcat server). There are almost 1000 sounds in the archive to
date, between 50 and 200 are accessible via the browser. The
next version of the Browser (2.0) gathers related sounds that
cluster around a theme/concept such as: weddings, elevators,
daredevils, voice-mails, music.
Prior to programming, the browser went through many
conceptual and design iterations. When we began development, we
met with a group of computer users that get together every month
at the Associated Blind on West 23rd Street in NYC. We asked
these tech savvy blind folks for advice about navigating through
sounds about the WTC and events of 9-11. At the time we were
considering an interface that was just empty - black - where all
cues were aural. After the meeting, we realized that we were
headed down the wrong path as most blind computer-users depend
upon in-depth titling and text descriptions.
We went through many more design iterations before we finally
settled on a simple interface of lines to evoke the spirit of
the buildings without being literal. These delicate moving
vertical lines so readily transform into sound waves,
representing both the place and the sound. What better metaphor
than sound waves to capture, release and share what can no
longer be held -- almost like echoes and reverberations from the
period before the buildings existed, the lives they housed, and
the day they fell.
CyberJournalist.net: How do you suggest that
users, particularly those less familiar with interactive
features such as this, use the Sonic Browser to get the most out
of it?
Alison: We wanted to create a graceful and open space
for all these sounds so visitors could experience stories in an
immersive way. Explore, experiment and listen. As far as we
know, you can¹t break the Sonic Browser. We hope that people
aren¹t afraid to download and install the latest Flash plug-in.
It¹s a tiny file and provides tremendous entrée to some really
innovative programs on the web. Once you enter the Browser you
get some quick animated instructions, so hopefully that helps
newcomers. In the Browser, we hope that visitors will spend time
"strumming" the lines to browse the sounds they house, clicking
on those that they would like to hear. We encourage visitors to
the site to take the time to contribute their own stories as
well as to listen.
CyberJournalist.net: In what ways do you
think that the Sonic Browser and the rest of the site give
listeners a different experience from what they might get from
listening to the Sonic Memorial segments on NPR?
Alison: As well as being listeners on the site, people
can take part in shaping this living and growing memorial to
9-11. We hope that listeners will realize that they are also
story-tellers and will contribute their own sounds - archival
and personal recordings, poems, thoughts, captured ambience,
songs and, always, stories. In a way, what "Here is New York A
Democracy of Images" is for photographs, the Sonic Memorial is
for sound. And the archive will continue to grow.
Each of our online documentaries is an experiment of sorts.
Beyond the challenges of honoring the content, what is the
current technology capable of? How much time will people spend
there? How long should an audio file be? How DOES a web
listening experience differ from listening to the radio? In the
Sonic Browser the experience is non-linear. By exploring and
listening to fragments of sound, often in unexpected
juxtapositions, and by interacting with the interface, the
listener becomes a participant in shaping their own experience
of a story. And the experience will be different each time.
The site gives the Sonic Memorial segments on NPR another
space and time in which to be heard, extending the life and
reach of the broadcasts. The web is a wonderful space to house
contextual documents, background information and resources.
Images of the Ironworkers, the Building Stewardesses and early
photos of Radio Row can be found in the "Stories" section, In
"For Educators" the online curriculum is a great resource for
teachers. The "Timeline" provides a glimpse into the history of
the location, the buildings and the events that took place
there. "Add a Sound" provides a place for visitors to do just
that with a form to upload a digital file and the toll free
number to leave voicemail sounds and stories. And the "Archive"
provides searchable access to all of the contributed sounds.
With each online documentary we produce, we attempt to provide
multiple entryways to accommodate different modes of exploring
and learning.
