Artist Statement

Mobile app (2014 – 2015)

Jessica Thompson’s Triangulation Device is a participatory sound piece that generates improvised soundscapes between two users. Using a simple, intuitive mobile application, the piece transcodes the distance between users into atmospheric soundscapes that unfold and change in response to movement, creating improvised choreographies in shared public spaces. The movement through space, especially the exploratory, uneven patterns of wandering, engages the body through a series of shifting spatial and social parameters. Unencumbered by the confines of location, participants are able to drift through cities in an almost tactile fashion, articulating social interactions through proxemic interaction, performative improvisation and play. By broadcasting sound into space through collaborative noisemaking, the project facilitates new and novel forms of sonic interaction that investigate how mobile technologies affect our understanding of place, home and territory.

• Jessica Thompson is a media artist whose practice investigates spatial and social conditions within urban environments through sound, performance and mobile technologies. Her work has shown in exhibitions and festivals such as ISEA2006 (San Jose), ISEA2014 (Dubai), the Conflux Festival (New York), Thinking Metropolis (Copenhagen), (in) visible Cities (Winnipeg), Beyond/In Western New York (Buffalo), NIME (Oslo), Audible Edifices (Hong Kong), Artists’ Walks (New York) and Locus Sonus (Aix-en-Provence). She is an Assistant Professor in Hybrid Practice at the University of Waterloo, Canada.

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