Sound Garden + Networked Public Spaces

The Tactical Sound Garden [TSG] toolkit is an open source software platform for cultivating public "sound gardens" in the city. It can be used to create social public spaces for people to participate in an digital environment to build a technologically mediated garden.

Working with mobile audio devices like the iPod, the toolkit enables anyone with access to wireless (WiFi) "hot zones" to install a "sound garden" for public use. Using a WiFi enabled mobile device (PDA, laptop, mobile phone), participants "plant" sounds within a positional audio environment.

These plantings are mapped onto the coordinates of a physical location by a 3D audio engine common to gaming environments - overlaying a publicly created soundscape onto a specific urban space. Wearing headphones connected to a WiFi enabled device, participants drift though virtual sound gardens as they move throughout the city.

RFID -

Radio Frequency Identification is gaining a wider acceptance as a robust interactive technology that can be used for many applications. The simplist way to descipt RFID is to think of it as an electronic barcode. RFID tags stores data relating to an item, an object or even a place and is read by a bar code scanner using optical or infrared wavelengths.

Blitz-light :: RFID tags and City Games

More Lights to Dark City Spaces!
Welcome to Blitz Play Hero!

Blitz-Light use interactive tags, circuit-bent electronics (in the shape of small trees) and Nintendo DS Light game consoles to create a live street concert of sound and light. The wireless network becomes activated by players (or cyclists) carrying small sound-amplifiers on their belts or which can be fitting to a bicycle.

The trees start of light up with bright coloured LED lights when in contact with the RFID tag.


Based on the sequence of the RFID tag (which works like a bar code) various sounds are generated on the DS light console. The numbers and sounds are then transferred to an online map which charts the players throughout the city. Great way to see your journey through the city!


There are 3 main game levels:

In LEVEL 1 players use the DS to “sniff” out open and closed WIFI hotspots. These are marked as playclouds (areas in the city where RFID tags can be placed). Players or cyclists chalk the symbol of a DS d-pad knob to indicate that a playcloud has been created. The location of the playclouds are stored on the DS as text file and is up-loaded to a Google map to store the data. This game data is overlayed on a map of the city with black and white polygons to represent players location.

The playclouds are assigned a base sound, used later in the concert, and at this point a player can view the map and begin to create a score of music, or simply use it to locate their nearest open WIFI spot.

LEVEL 2 invites players to find the playclouds and place RFID tags at their location. The system automatically assigns them a sound. This again is stored on the DS and transferred to the online map - updated with each tag.

LEVEL 3 is the live concert.
Players return to playclouds, scanning their own and other player’s tags, to play the sound on the DS. Each player becomes an instrument in the orchestra of RFID readers.

Throughout the levels players are awarded points for finding clouds, placing tags, and generating music, and thus the Blitz Play Hero is declared.