We live in a world where our actions have transformed nature in such a way that even in the deepest rainforest the sound of heavy logging machinery can be heard, hence bringing organisms and animals in risk for distinction.

The “Talking House” is a playful way to let the viewer feel the power and ominipresence of sound and to agree on that our behaviour is part of something bigger. By composing harmony between nature, human and technology I attempted to transform ideas, numbers and data through design into awareness and insight in the real world.

Humans like to speak, a lot, but now is the time to listen. Please come in and feel welcomed by the "Talking House" - a talkative and hospitable Hotel introducing you to its home town through an interactive acoustic map.

The idea is to listen to a place before visiting it, and then decide by ear where you are drawn to.

Story from a contemporary witness:

“We lived with and from our eight cows and six cattle. When the construction work began, we had to make half of our land available.”

Today:

The Linth Limmern Powerplant has a total installed capacity of 1480 MW. It plays a massive role in stabilising the European power grid and ensures Swiss’ energy sovereignty in case of black outs.

 

In addition to the present soundscape, each sight or landmark had a soundtrack from the past, providing a glimpse into the evolution of the place. The historic soundtrack is co-created with an image and text to sound AI system fed with archived photos, newspaper and protocols as input.

For the electronic part, the user selects a location by turning a dial and then presses one of two buttons to select an audio track from the present or the past. The main task was to synchronize the physical input buttons with the content displayed on the audiovisual interface.

The interface consisted of a 6-position rotary switch and two spring loaded push-buttons that also featured a built in LED. I designed a simple router board to avoid a cable mess. It connects all inputs and outputs with resistors, transistors and the PINS. The board was mounted inside the panel and was connected to the RPI and +12V DC to power the two LEDs inside the switches.

// Node.js script running on a Raspberrypi
// Require modules
const io = require("socket.io")(PORT);
const Gpio = require('pigpio').Gpio;

// Defining input pins
const switch = new Gpio(12, {
  mode: Gpio.INPUT,
  pullUpDown: Gpio.PUD_UP,
  alert: true
});

// Debounce button
switch.glitchFilter(1000);

// Handle button press
io.on("connection", async socket => {
  switch.on('alert', (level, tick) => {
    if (level === 0) {
    socket.emit('switch');
    }
  })
  //...
})

process.on('SIGINT', function() {
  process.exit();
})

// React App running inside Electron
import React, { Component } from 'react';
import io from 'socket.io-client';

import YourComponent from './components/YourComponent';

// Connect to socket
const socket = io("raspberrypi.local:8080")

// Set state
class App extends Component {
  constructor(props) {
    super(props);
	this.state = {
      globalindex: 0
    }
  }
	
  // Set state on button pressed
  componentDidMount() {
    socket.on('switch', () =>{
      this.setState({globalindex: 1});
	})
  }

   // Render component
  render () {
    return(
      <div className = "App">
        <YourComponent index={this.state.globalindex}/>
      </div>
    )
  }
};

export default App;

A Node.js script read the button states and sent out the data over a websocket. The visual interface was rendered by a React App that received the data over the websocket. The app, which ran inside Electron, was then able to display the appropriate contents.