Sounds of Mumbai was born out of nostalgia for the sounds of home. The project aimed to create an audio-visual experience that evokes walking through the streets of Mumbai, immersed in its sonic landscape—wedding processions, trains, buses, and music. The objective was to evoke feelings of a nostalgia for people who have visited Mumbai and awe, discovery among people who have never visited it.
We used the Umfeld Arduino IDE, based on C++, to program sound inputs and outputs. The sound outputs were triggered by body-weight pressure applied to a custom-built switch made from conductive foam and conductive metal wire mesh, mounted on a wooden platform. The team built six such wooden platforms to simulate the act of walking and encountering different sounds across the city. Each switch also triggered LED strip illumination as a visual response.
The LED visuals and their distinct color patterns were created through connections between the Umfeld Arduino IDE, Resolume Arena, and OBS Studio. OBS Studio projected visual patterns that were mapped to specific switches via Resolume Arena, creating a synchronized audio-visual experience.
The course equipped us with skills in visual and creative coding. Additionally, it demonstrated how computing power can be used to create an immersive experience of a place thousands of miles away through soundscapes.
Beyond coding, the making process extended into the electronics fabrication lab and the woodcraft lab. Building the wiring systems and constructing the wooden stations were valuable hands-on learning experiences. The constant back-and-forth between coding logic and physical electronic materials strengthened the team’s creative and technical thinking.
