The Concept
Every music venue has a distinct acoustic fingerprint — shaped by its architecture and history — that is as much a part of a scene's sound as the artists who played there. It's almost never documented, and once a venue closes or is altered, it's gone for good.
Acoustic Fingerprint treats that sound as a primary artistic material. We're recording the acoustic reverb, 3D form, and history of significant English music venues while they're still standing — before rising costs and redevelopment take them, often with little warning.
The venues in this project are, for now, still open. This project is deliberately proactive: rather than mourning venues after they're lost, it captures their acoustic and physical character while full access is still possible.
Technical Details
Working with sound engineer Joe Fossard, we record the acoustic impulse response of each venue and 3D scan the space using Matterport technology. The Matterport scan becomes a full VR walkthrough; the impulse response becomes a convolution reverb profile applied to newly commissioned music, producer tracks, or verified public domain recordings tied to that venue — so visitors hear the room as it truly sounds.
A hand-built, hand-painted physical 3D model is also produced for each venue. The completed VR experience is installed in a solar-powered converted shipping container, touring free to English city centres for small groups per session, with exterior screens showing the making-of process. A parallel website and app extend the archive nationally and internationally — including a feature letting visitors hear their own music through a venue's captured reverb.
Desired Outcomes
- A completed, working VR archive of every venue — installed in the container and live online.
- Genuine visitor engagement during the city installations, measured through session sign-ins and exit feedback.
- Measurable online reach through website and app analytics — visits, downloads, session length.
- Qualitative feedback from venue owners and visiting artists on whether the reproduction feels authentic to the space.
- A model proven ready to expand to further venues beyond this first run.