installations and interventions   padded perception an interactive sound environment commissioned by the lowry a room with a padded floor. inside there is a padded hollow cube (8 ft x 8 ft) open to one side with a padded bench opposite. all padded surfaces are equipped with touch sensitive sensors and relay information about the participant’s movements to an artificial soundscape engine. any sonic feedback to his actions the participant may expect to hear is replaced by an alternative sonic response dynamically generated by the artifical soundscape engine. thus the congruence of physical and sonic reality blurs. credits concept, design, sound design and programming: volkmar klien project management: dba (london/gb) shop drawings: statics reich & petch (toronto/cdn) sensoring system: mkw-electronics (vienna/a) contractors: eq-projects (leeds/gb) padded perception was part of the artworks gallery at the lowry (manchester/gb) and opened in june 2000 rewiring visitors’ physical actions for the following three years. it was taken down in december 2003. there is also available a short video documentation in mp4-format (~ 18 mb).

© 1997–2006 volkmar klien / © design reya-d