ABOUT PROJECT

ACUO [pronounce ah-khu-oh, from Latin, means to sharpen voice]

Acuo is an interactive audio-visual installation for public spaces. It is based on the concept by Michal Šeba, with the support of municipal projects BU2R. With its shape and functions, Acuo resembles a cosmic module which has landed in the city to observe the affairs around. Acuo sees and hears in a way different from ours. It scans the world with six microphones and three cameras; then it transmits the environment thus captured to the inside, to emit a spatial audio experience and to screen it through a LED system onto all of its inner walls. At the same time, Acuo transmits the sound around it through a terrestrial FM radio signal and streams both audio and video online to its acuo.cz base. There, this recording is archived for future generations. In addition, the module is equipped with a “periscope” with a highly sensitive directional microphone; this enables the audience to capture audio details of the city commotion.
The crew is made of the passers-by; inside the Acuo module, they can experience the city in another way, they can analyze the events outside while contemplating the endless variability of individual output modification. From a brand new perspective, the visitors can experience the sound map of a place they walk through every day, without the ability to thoroughly perceive or listen.

The project is conceived and headed by Michal Šeba, a graduate from the Academy of Arts, Architecture and Design in Prague. Vítězslav Danda and his colleagues from the Edit! Architecture Studio are the authors of the triangular polygon, a shape ideal for sound diffusion and for galactic flight. The sound technologies were taken care of by Stanislav Abrahám, a student of the Centre of Audiovisual Studies at the Prague Film and TV Academy and a lecturer of sound technologies of the Prague Academy of Fine Arts, as well as by Michal Šeba; together, they form the Data-Live project. The LED system was developed by Michal Pustějovský, a student of the New Media studio of the Academy of Fine Arts. Acuo website, streaming and other internet affiliated projects are provided by the techno-optimist a cyber space pioneer Matěj Bacovský and his firm Bioport. The production of an independent module was handled by a former aircraft engineer Libor Štych in cooperation with Mirek Mareš. The shell was designed and made by the Sistersconspiracy fashion designers. The project is produced by Yinachi, as a part of city projects conducted under the BU2R brand.