A Private Space is a web-based sound-art project by composer Ross Whyte and artist Shenpen Chokyi. It is designed to allow visitors to ‘journey’ to various imagined locations on a map and experience surreal sonic environments. Each location’s soundscape is specifically designed to be listened to through headphones and juxtaposes binaural recordings of existing environments with composed ambient material. It is concerned with creating a subjective virtual ‘journey’ via an interactive graphic environment.
The concept for A Private Space was imagined by Ross Whyte in late 2010. The idea was based loosely on Google Maps and its ability to allow visitors to have visual access to almost any location on the planet. Ross imagined a map of an imaginary island that was populated by a variety of themed locations: the city, the harbour, the valley, etc., and that each location would have its own soundscape which could be accessed via headphone listening.
Artist Shenpen Chokyi was responsible for bringing the crucial visual elements to life. As well as the design for the original map, Shenpen created the graphics that would represent each location.
A paper discussing the origins of A Private Space was published in 2011 by the University of Huddersfield’s CeReNeM Journal Issue 2 and can be accessed here
