Simulating, exploring and optimizing the spatial sound scene of the Sonapticon

The Sonapticon is an audio-visual art installation of illuminated audio-processing speaker sculptures by Tim Otto Roth intertwining between acoustics and neuroscience: as audio neurons, the speakers communicate with each other through open space using tones. Specific tone frequencies are excitatory while other frequencies inhibit the neuron's response. Upon excitation by external sound, some neurons will respond with a specific tone, which other neurons will respond to, yielding a neural-tonal response pattern across the spatial arrangement of the Sonapticons neurons. We have created a simulation of the Sonapticon's spatiotemporal audiovisual response to external sound. Using the real-time Simulated Field Environment room acoustic simulation software, the transfer paths between all neurons are simulated, taking into account the position and directionality of each neuron. The sound at the two microphones of each neuron is computed and from it the neuron's response. The simulation yields the sound at a listener position, the activation function for each neuron and for the whole Sonapticon. The software simulation allows experiencing the Sonapticon and optimizing its parameters prior to a sound art installation.