Sound Clouds: Exploring ambient intelligence in public spaces to elicit deep human experience of awe, wonder, and beauty

TL;DR

The paper addresses how ambient intelligence in public spaces can evoke deep human experiences such as awe, wonder, and beauty. It presents Sound Clouds, an immersive installation where large spheres generate live music driven by participant movement, using computer vision tracking (YOLO) and a rule-based Max/MSP engine to map spatial interactions to sound. The system partitions the venue into zones and employs scripts (cloudGrid, orbProxi, pitchShift) with ESP-NOW lighting control, illustrating a concrete pathway from perception to affective output. Participant accounts suggest heightened feelings of interconnectedness and contemplation, positioning the work as a provocative design direction for future AmI that enriches human experience rather than merely optimizing efficiency.

Abstract

While the ambient intelligence (AmI) systems we encounter in our daily lives, including security monitoring and energy-saving systems, typically serve pragmatic purposes, we wonder how we can design and implement ambient artificial intelligence experiences in public spaces that elicit deep human feelings of awe, wonder, and beauty. As a manifestation, we introduce Sound Clouds, an immersive art installation that generates live music based on participants' interaction with several human-height spheres. Our installation serves as a provocation into future ambient intelligence that provokes, not limits, the future possibilities of AmI.

Figures (3)

• Figure 1: Participants Interacting with Sound Clouds on the Live Exhibition Day
• Figure 2: Screenshot of the Sound Clouds Music Generation Logic Implemented in Max/MSP
• Figure 3: Left: Top-down View of the Exhibit Space (View from the Go Pro Camera), Right: Top-down Schematic of the Max Music Generation Project