The ear favors no particular “point of view” we are enveloped by sound. It points a seamless web around us.
We hear sounds from everywhere, without ever having to focus. Sounds come from “above,” from “below,” from in “front” of us, from “behind” us, from our “right,” from our “left.” We can't shut out sound automatically. We simply are not equipped with earlids. Where a visual space is an organized continuum of a uniformed connected kind, the ear world is a world o simultaneous relationships.
Marshall McLuhan, Quentin Fiore, The medium is the Massage
The walls have ears is an attempt to visualize the sound patterns from a certain place. A virtual system grows based on the sounds from the surroundings. The system's phenotype is defined by the genotype (algorithm), environmental conditions (sound events) and random variation. The morphology of the cells is defined by the respective sound event characteristics and its “memory” contains a sample of the sound event itself. These memories are accessed when cells contact with each other so, one will be able to listen fragments of that space sound activity through this organic audiovisual piece.
A network of sound sensors (microphones) is spread around the space/building and captures the sound events above a defined threshold. Whenever a sound is recorded, a new cell is born and appears on the visualization screen. A soundscape emerges from the system's internal interactions, the contact between the cells. As time goes on, cells die and new sounds bring new cells to life.