The Ambient Sound Map
Oto Fūkei - The Interactive Ambient Sound Map Oto fūkei (音風景) is a Japanese term meaning “soundscape” or “sound landscape”. It is the idea that places are not only defined by what they look like, but also by the sounds that shape our emotional perception of them. A narrow Tokyo alley has a very different sonic identity from a riverside park. A dense commercial district feels different from a suburban rail corridor. Inspired by the idea of oto fūkei, I’ve been experimenting with an interactive map that generates ambient soundscapes directly from OpenStreetMap data. As you pan around the Oto Fūkei map, the visible roads, buildings, parks, waterways and rail infrastructure are analysed in real time to create a dynamic ambient soundtrack that reflects the character and atmosphere of each neighborhood. Using MapLibre GL JS , the map continuously analyses the visible vector tile features in the current viewport, including: roads buildings parks and greenery water rail infrastructure ...
