The brainchild of Yuri Suzuki—a sound artist and designer in residence at Design Museum London—in collaboration with headphone developer AiAiAi, Sound Taxi has been putting smiles on the faces of commuters and tourists all week as it tours the city, its 67 speakers beaming out haunting crescendos that change in time with its surroundings.
Most of its speakers are embedded in the side of the taxi, but a series of huge Indian horns (typically used to call worshippers to temple, and in this case calling city dwellers to a mini, mobile temple of music) sit atop the roof, making for quite a spectacle. Put it this way, if the Child Catcher had one of these bad boys, there'd be no need for any prison bars—no one voluntarily gets out, and after going for a quick spin near Wired.co.uk's offices, it looks like everyone wants to get in.
"What's interesting is the reactions are different depending on what area you're driving in," says AiAiAi representative Tobia Holz who came along for the ride. "We had the most engaging reactions in the Hackney area, with bus drivers stopping, opening their windows and shouting 'does it play reggae'? Round Mayfair you get a lot of puzzled looks and also a lot of smiles, but it's not as enthusiastic. It's a bit more reserved."
The melody that pours out of the speakers, inside the cab and out, is intriguing to follow, with passing motorbikes causing a stream of sound and the hiss of a bus turned into a tinkering hi-hat frenzy. A measurement microphone fixed to the roof picks up the ambient sounds and feeds it into software created by sound designer Mark McKeague using Max for Live. This analyzes the different frequencies, and translates them into different musical tones using Ableton Live—for instance, a siren is a medium frequency so triggers a medium melody where the bass isn't too harsh.
Although it's a great experience to hear the track morph in real-time as buses, trucks and fire engines stream past on Piccadilly, it's the faces of the passers-by that are most enjoyable. Their reactions are priceless. In a city where most residents are busily trying to block out urban white noise with headphones, hopping from A to B without an upward glance, the Sound Taxi provides ample reason to pause for a moment and soak up every sight and sound the city affords. A quick spin round Mayfair and builders taking a break on Burlington Gardens can't wipe the sheer glee off their faces, Cecconi regulars don't bat an eye and continue discussing their Savile Row suits (though one mouth did momentarily drop open), Old Bond Street shop workers run out when the cab's in traffic to pose for Twitpics and tourists just start laughing, presumably thinking, 'oh the English, what are they like?'
Fans of art-based automobile oddities can track the cab's progress at the Make The City Sound Better website—an ongoing campaign by AiAiAi—where a live feed streams its journey, compiled tracks are played and user's can use GPS tracking to find its current location. Sadly, the project came to an end at 4pm on 21 September, but part-time DJ Suzuki is in talks with Boiler Room to do a London show with the decks fitted in the back of the cab. It will probably be the most uncomfortable set Suzuki has ever done, but with the sounds of the crowd feeding in to the speakers, it could be the most thrilling one.
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