Recent survey data from The International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity found that, outside of sleeping, the largest collective contributor to energy expenditure among the population of the United States was "driving a car." Furthermore, the same source mentions the average person spends about 15 hours per week in their vehicle. Note, this is not simply the time you spend in the day, but actual time expending our energy. The space within a car is a rich multi-sensory environment encompassing a constant stream of visual, sonic, tactile/haptic, and even oral-factory stimuli (those who have pulled over at the smell of burning rubber or engine coolant know what I mean). The driver is part of a sensory-mechanical feedback loop. All the senses inform how to continually adjust this sophisticated mechanical system. In a way, the car is a kind of interactive kinetic "sculpture musicale.”

There can be more than 100 micro-controllers in cars today, making them essentially computers on wheels. We can use a something called OBD2 (which stands for onboard diagnostics) as a gateway into the car’s computer. Another aspect that fascinates me is the juxtaposition of two different spaces: the consistency of the space within the car and the continually unfolding environment outside, with the structure of the vehicle itself serving as the liminal frame separating the two. The aim of this project to take the dynamic sonic landscape from outside the vehicle using contact microphones to create an aesthetic translation played inside of the car using its audio system. The sound collected from the outside is transformed using realtime data including: engine load, oil temperature, accelerator position, RPM, MPH, wheel position, altitude, heading, and more. This data is collected using: - OBD-II CAN bus to access the car computer data - Smartphone transmitting GPS location, direction of travel - eMotion Tech's Twist, transmitting the acceleration and rotational inertia of the steering wheel, the car's most sensitive point of connection with the driver. All of this data can be translated to control musical parameters of the remixed environment. The output is essentially a synthesis of the outside environment, the car's mechanical behavior, the predetermined parameter mapping, and the actions of the driver.