​​MUTEK.JP x KALKUL [Urban Sound Gallery]

MUTEK.JP and mixed reality company Kalkul are launching an Urban Sound Gallery, an AR soundscape experience using the spatial audio app AURA.

The Tokyo-based startup Kalkul released its modular and spatial audio application AURA for iOS earlier this year. AURA delivers a new kind of spatialized acoustic experience using advanced audio technology, which places geographically located sound holograms within the urban space. The only thing the user needs is a smartphone, a pair of earphones, and the AURA iOS application, in order to explore this fusion of physical and digital worlds.

Inspired by this radical and futuristic experience, MUTEK.JP has teamed up with Kalkul to create an Urban Sound Gallery, which presents a selection of MUTEK.JP artists augmenting the urban landscape of Shibuya with their own unique sounds. The experiences will be released on Sunday, December 5th, and will be available for free on the AURA application for iOS.

As a teaser for the upcoming 6th edition of MUTEK.JP taking place December 8 to 12, the "MUTEK.JP DISC" will feature previously unreleased spatial content by five artists performing at the festival: Aalko aka Akiko Kiyama, Lemna, Masayoshi Fujita, NTsKi and Risa Taniguchi. In addition, the two artists and long-time MUTEK.JP collaborators Yuri Urano and Saskia created two large scale soundscape experiences in Miyashita and Yoyogi Park.

Together Kalkul AURA and MUTEK.JP explore new formats of spatial media firmly pointing towards a future, where visitors dive into new hybrid experiences blending performance and exhibition, physical and virtual worlds.

◾️MUTEK.JP DISC

The MUTEK festival and audience is the perfect place to launch AURA. The experience will augment this years festival with exclusive spatial media content of selected five artists around Shibuya. It is designed like a gallery of sounds placed around the city. An Urban sound Gallery. Visitors can experience a hybrid format of live events, classic online streaming and the new mixed reality format. AURA together with MUTEK.JP showcases the potential of spatial media for future events where visitors will experience a new hybrid form of performances and contextual information.

Aalko aka Akiko Kiyama / Lemna - "Closer to the Boundary" from immersive storytelling "Dusk" / Masayoshi Fujita / NTsKi /Risa Taniguchi

◾️Yuri Urano

Yuri was inspired by AURA to teleport the ancient sound of Arashiyama in Kyoto over the new futuristic construction of Miyashita Park in Shibuya, Tokyo. Users can see Yuri introducing the experience as a hologram in front of the park and walk through the sounds of Arashiyama.

◾️Saskia

Saskia created the largest AURA experience in Yoyogi Park [ 50 layers of spatial sound mixed with holograms] Three stories will take the visitor on a journey to reflect on memory and dimensions. At the entrance of the park visitors can see Saskia introducing the experience.

◾️Machina [bonus content]

As a bonus content visitors can see a first large hologram on Shibuya crossing from Tokyo based Korean artist machìna, and explore the new sound of her newly released album "Compass Point".

KALKUL AURA™

This is the birth of AURA, an Augmented Reality world of sound and holograms users can explore with their earphones, iPhone and soon AR-Glasses. Users can explore spatial media holograms around them by just walking around the city.

The playful and innovative 3D user interface lets users interact with the spatial world in a natural way. The Interface will expand its functionality and adapt to the user's personal setup.

The concept for AURA is modular, with a disc as its building block. Users can choose from a catalog of hologram experiences and mix their own spatial media world to their preferences. The spatial media content is packaged into so-called AURA-DISCs.

About KALKUL

Kalkul is a Mixed Reality Company based in Tokyo, founded by German cybernetic engineer Bartek Kolacz and French brain-machine-interface engineer Mehdi Hamadi. Both founders met in Tokyo and bonded through their passion for electronic music, product design and high technology. Kalkul started originally with the design and prototyping of a new type of augmented reality earphones. The mission for Kalkul was to create a world of sound layered over the real world to enhance our daily life where we can live inside the music.