Concrete Crickets by Michael Dory is a part of Conflux 2007 and will be introduced in a special preview on September 5, 2007 at 7pm at Location One in SoHo. Info, directions, etc at: dorkbot.org.

Graffiti is one of the most powerful and most personal displays in the urban experience, and can be used to make statements, tag territory, spread messages — urban markup language in practice. However, the output is nearly always visual in nature, making this experience one-dimensional. Furthermore, rarely does the work have a brain of its own, and is usually incapable of reacting to anybody observing it.

Concrete Crickets was created to address this deficit, creating small devices that will be aware of passers-by as well as other units of their kind. Each unit consists of a sound generator, amp, speaker and sensory system, and is housed in camouflage appropriate to the streets of the city — soda cans, cigarette packs, and the like.

This project aims to create, by installing small “crickets” in a small area of city space, a multi-directional audio experience. Each device is programmed with a particular voice, with each being part of a larger whole. When night falls, the crickets go active for a few hours, singing out in their particular way. When approached, the crickets fall silent (as would crickets and cicadas in nature). Each are sensitive to what happens to the others, and the end result will be waves of songs, changing and adapting to their surroundings.