Software – WasP

WasP was developed at RMIT University’s SIAL Sound Studios as part of a Design Research Institute funded pilot. The pilot produced strategies to support the composition and curation of complex spatial works over publicly installed soundscape systems.

Software features:
• Scalable client/server playback system
• Algorithmically generated data sets for controlling playback speed, volume and spatialisation routines
• Automated control techniques
• Integrated sound spatialisation modules
• Methods for soundscape creation and soundscape curation

WasP is an interactive performance environment for multichannel spatial soundscape composition, curation and design. The software was designed and developed by Jeffrey Hannam with Lawrence Harvey.

In 2012, Jordan Lacey, a sound artist and researcher at RMIT University, used WasP for ‘Revoicing the Striated Landscape’ – a public laneways project commissioned by the City of Melbourne. For Lacey’s public work, which ran for 3 months, Jeffrey worked closely with him to develop a new standalone WasP Player.

This work demonstrates Jeffrey’s ongoing practice-based research exploring tool-based developments in the field of spatial sound design, in which he applies software design innovations to the development of novel spatialisation tools for installations and live performance.

The development of tools such as WasP has enabled researchers, artists and curators working within the spatial sound field to expand their repertoire into spaces previously not possible due to complexities and constraints often experienced at the technical level. The significance of the work is evidenced by its use for Lacey’s public art work, which was reviewed in The Age, and in which WasP played a vital role in the spatialisation strategy implemented for it.

2008 – 2012