“Imagine a world in which your eyes are of no use and the only way to communicate is through sound.” [1] (Rejane Cantoni, 2006) »OP_ERA: Sonic Dimension« is a computer-based installation in which visitors experience sound spatially. Since 1999 the Brazilian artists Daniela Kutschat and Rejane Cantoni have been exploring sound chambers in their research project OP_ERA.

The music box »OP_ERA: Sonic Dimension« consists of three large projection screens arranged as an open cube. All three screens show hundreds of light vertical lines. When touched they begin to vibrate and sound like the strings of a harp. Both the movement of the lines and their sound depends on the movements of the visitors. They can interact with the installation in two ways: by making sounds or tones or by moving their bodies. The sounds made by the visitors are recorded via 360° microphones. Sound frequencies of ambient sounds, like footsteps or voices, are analyzed by software and translated into visual material. Thus by making sounds the visitors can make the strings vibrate visibly.

In addition to the microphones motion sensors enable a further type of interaction. The sensors detect the positions of visitors and their movements in the room: with each movement of hand or body the visitors trigger a sound.

[1] Rejane Cantoni, »Intelligent environments: Body architecture and op_era,« in Semiotic Bodies, Aesthetic Embodiments, and Cyberbodies, ed. Winfried Nöth (Kassel: Kassel University Press, 2006), pp. 199–210, quotation p. 207.