Use new ways of presenting data to raise awareness among the general public about noise pollution in the metro.
Date
2018
Results
Silver Kantar Information is Beautiful Awards 2019.
Launch project
Commute is an immersive, interactive audio experience that explores the sound footprint of a public transportation line.
The goal of Commute was to raise awareness of noise pollution in the city. We wanted to see and hear the noises that surround us each day - noises that impact on our health and energy levels.
The spiral view mode replays a metro journey through shapes, colors and sounds.
Armed with a sound level meter and an audio recorder, we rode every Paris metro line to build the first sound database of the Paris transport system.
Commute combines vision and audio in a poetic way: the app breaks recorded noise down into frequencies and intensities, and then transforms them into beautiful visual and sound patterns. The app therefore provides the opportunity to both listen to and watch data that relates to a daily metro journey.
Throughout the project, we experimented with data sonication. In Commute, the data generates a harmonious melody thanks to an algorithm that matches the decibels collected with the harmonic frequencies in a pentatonic scale.
The circular viewing mode highlights the impact of each metro trip on travelers: every minute spent above 80 dB in the day harms our health.
With Commute, we hope that the immersive experience, the interactivity and the sounds can give something back each day to people living in large cities.
By comparing the noise footprint of different metro lines, users can better understand the causes of noise pollution.