New Atlantis is a shared (multi-user) online virtual world dedicated to audio experimentation and practice. Unlike most online worlds where image is the primary concern, in New Atlantis sound comes first.
New Atlantis provides a context for new-media students to showcase research projects that explore the relationship between sound, virtual 3D image and interactivity. It offers a pedagogical platform for audiographic animation, real-time sound synthesis, object sonification and acoustic simulation. It is a place to organize virtual sound installations, online concerts, soundwalks and other audio visual art experiences.
The name New Atlantis comes from the title of a Utopian novel by Philosopher Francis Bacon, 1627 (ref) which describes a legendary island somewhere in the Atlantic Ocean, dotted with extraordinary audio phenomena that might be considered as premonitory of todays electronic and digital audio techniques. We have adopted some of Bacon’s ideas and nomenclature to create classes for the virtual world such as “Sound Houses”, “Sound Pipes”, “Trunks” and “Helps”.
In New Atlantis all elements have (by default) audio qualities: spaces resonate, surfaces reflect and collisions activate the multiple sounds of the objects involved. In addition we have created custom objects such as “Sound Trunks” where visitors can leave a recording or a voice object whereby a visitor can detach his or her voice (from navigation) and use it to make a distant space resound.
A collection of purpose built scripts implement low level sound synthesis and multiple parameter interactivity enabling the creation of complex sound sources and environments linked to animation or navigation in the visual scene.
http://www.tanant.info/newatlantis/