Sonicity app launches–experience your city commute through the ears of local musicians
By Meaghan Richens
A new app is putting more local music on the map – literally.
Sonicity is a free mobile app that provides users with a tailored soundtrack to their daily bus commute, composed by a local musician.
The project was funded by OC Transpo and the City of Ottawa through its Public Art Program and bills itself as an “immersive sonic trip through the streets of Ottawa.”
Remco Volmer is the managing director at Artengine, the Ottawa-based media arts group that developed the app.
He said for the project, local artists were asked to select an OC Transpo bus route that connected with them in some way, whether it was an area they lived in, or their route to work.
The artists were then commissioned to arrange an original, instrumental composition inspired by the experience of riding that route.
“The point was for them to score that route from end to end – so basically write a soundtrack to that bus route, based on landmarks they would pass (and) the general environment of where the route would be going,” said Volmer.
“The idea was that riders then, on those lines, would have an almost personalized soundtrack depending on where they would get on that line,” he added.
“So whether you would ride that bus for a longer time or a shorter time, you would have a specific chunk of music to accompany you on your ride.”
Most bus routes are about 45 minutes to an hour from end to end, so Volmer said Artengine chose to work with artists who were already working in a primarily instrumental vein.
Adam Saikaley, for example, is a local pianist, composer and improviser who composed a track for the 95 bus route that runs east-west across the city from Barrhaven to Orleans, including a stretch of downtown Ottawa.
“I grew up taking the 95 my entire life, on both ends of the route! I know it so intimately,” Saikaley said in an email.
“The route carries a lot of memories for me, so I was happy I could give back to it and be a part of its history in some way,” he added.
Saikaley said he rode the route many times while composing his piece.
“I composed all of it at home in my studio, then I’d bounce it down to my iPhone and jump on the bus and I’d see if my composition was working.”
He added: “I wanted to give the rider/listener a sense of calmness that allowed them to take in their present surroundings, not to distract them from it.”
Volmer said part of what inspired the project was noticing riders with earphones in, trying to remove themselves from the experience of being on the bus.
“And we basically said, ‘What if we did something that would actually make you want to pay attention or sort of be in that experience or be in that moment?” said Volmer.
Visually, the app is clean and simple. It works in both official languages but won’t tell you if your bus is on time, or which stop to get off at. There is a simple, abstracted map of the bus route by itself and an indicator of where the rider is on that route and in the composition.
The app was deliberately designed to be minimalist, so as not to distract riders from the music and the scenes observed along the route.
“It’s purely about that experience of being in the city somewhere and having a soundtrack to your travels,” said Volmer.
Currently, the app offers a handful of bus routes to choose from, including the 6, 11 and 14 that run through Centretown.
But the app isn’t quite perfect yet. It’s 500 MB, which is large for a mobile app, and takes a while to download. A handful of negative reviews on the app’s Google Play page indicate that it sometimes doesn’t open or load properly once downloaded.
Volmer acknowledged that the public’s responses to the project have been very mixed.
“We talked to someone who writes about public transport issues online, and that response was interesting,” said Volmer.
“He really enjoyed the project, but the music was just not for him. But the responses have been very good. Everyone that hears about it is interested to know more about what it is and at least trying it out.”
Volmer said the idea for the Sonicity app was informed by two past Artengine projects, which explored the way music enhances the experience of travel.
The first project was called Nite Ride.
“So you have that experience where you’re driving and a song comes on the radio and it’s weirdly appropriate for the environment in which you drive,” said Volmer. “So we commissioned two sound artists to do a car ride through the Gatineau (hills).”
The second project incorporated architecture, and musical responses to landmarks.
“We created an architectural walk downtown, where there’s a number of architectural landmarks such as the National Arts Centre and the West Block,” said Volmer.
“So you would have a guide talking about the architecture and then a piece of music that sort of responded to or interpreted that piece of architecture musically.”
Both of these were downloadable projects that combined location and environment with commissioned music particular to that place, said Volmer.
“So not deliberately, (the Sonicity project) sort of came out of that, thinking about these experiences of travel and how to be in the city,” Volmer said.
The Sonicity project is just one example of a recent effort to promote local music.
Last year, the Ottawa Music Industry Coalition and the City of Ottawa teamed up for the Love Local Music project. The project created and promoted a series of playlists of local music organized by genre.
Another example is the #ottmusik project, launched in 2016, which plays the music of local musicians for callers on hold in the City of Ottawa’s phone system.
And most recently, the city announced plans to allocate $100,000 of the 2018 city budget to an Ottawa Music Strategy, the details of which will become public in March.
Saikaley said he is hopeful that the app will get people interested in local music.
“Ottawa’s music scene could use any type of interest and attention, from anyone anywhere,” said Saikaley.
“Locally, I hope the app finds a way to pique the interest of Ottawans who normally wouldn’t find the opportunity to engage in Ottawa’s music scene,” Saikaley added.
Volmer agrees. He sees this app as a new way of accessing culture.
“That idea of taking an art project outside of the traditional confines of where you would find these things — I think that, as a pursuit, is worthwhile,” Volmer said.
Sonicity will be holding an official launch event on Feb. 10 at 4 p.m. at the National Arts Centre. In addition to a preview of the Ottawa Music Strategy, the evening will feature performances from local musicians and a silent disco night ride to simulate the app experience.