DETROIT – The "Symphony in D" project is looking for looking for locals to download a new app and begin recording the sounds of Detroit.
The Detroit Symphony Orchestra (DSO), in partnership with Tod Machover at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Media Lab and the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, released two free apps that allow citizens of Detroit and metropolitan locals to submit sounds and personalized mixes to the Symphony in D project.
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The mobile app, Symphony In D, is available for free download now in the Apple App Store and on Google Play.
The project aims to create a symphony about Detroit, for Detroit and essentially by Detroit. Organizers will consider submissions for inclusion in the final work, which is set for a premiere by the DSO at Orchestra Hall in Detroit on Nov. 16.
A composer and professor of music and media at MIT, Machover plans to write a collaborative symphony using sound submissions and conceptual contributions from the public.
App users can upload sounds that they record and listen to sounds submitted by others which are geo-tagged on an evolving "sound map" of Detroit.
Using the Constellation app, designed by Media Lab graduate student Akito van Troyer, users can explore the most recent sounds collected and combine them into personal mixes.
As part of the projects community outreach program and educational workshops, Hyperscore, another computer software program developed by Machover allows young people to compose their own musical portraits of Detroit by drawing lines and colors, translating them into orchestral impressions.
The DSO is the first American orchestra to work with Machover on a collaborative symphony. He has completed similar projects in Toronto, Canada; Edinburgh, Scotland; and Perth, Australia.