MultiHub Forum

I’ve been tasked with creating a small, immersive sound installation for a historical lighthouse that’s being converted into a minimalist art space, with a strict budget of only €800 for all hardware and software. The challenge is that the primary chamber is a massive, 10-meter-high cylindrical brick room with incredibly problematic acoustics—every sound decays into a muddy, prolonged reverberation that swallows detail. I need to design a piece that uses this reverb as a feature, not a flaw, but my field recorder and basic condenser mic are picking up nothing but a washed-out mess during my initial tests. I’m considering very sparse, sustained tonal elements triggered by visitor movement, but I’m stuck on how to capture or generate clean source material that will transform meaningfully in that space without specialized, expensive gear.

Treat the cylinder as an instrument: build a tiny generative rig with two or three drones triggered by visitors via a PIR sensor, routed through a real-time convolution reverb using a room impulse response (recorded with a cheap mic or generated synthetically). With €800 you can get a laptop or Raspberry Pi 4, a USB interface, a couple of small speakers, and a few contact mics. The aim is evolving, spatial sound that leverages the space’s natural decay rather than fighting it.