The Challenge

The challenge lay in finding a sound which could be concrete enough to evoke MAPS, but which did not color the diverse aesthetics of the many projects and artists they represent. This was a tightrope which although complex in nature excited us!

We noted that MAPS is a special kind of museum, as it is both a location, a platform, and a sort of map which is punctuated with the locations of their many art pieces exhibited across the country, in public spaces. Therefore, we found it imperative to find a way to incorporate these aspects of inside-outside, physical-digital, as well as the idea of interpreting MAPS as a literal map.

The client specifically asked us to come up with something that sounded challenging and reflected the idea of “Opening New Perspectives,” as art, beyond being interesting and maybe sometimes pretty, is also capable of opening our eyes, challenging our minds, and giving us new perspectives.

Finally, the client asked us to include a sense of everyday and everybody. This was really important because, in contrast to traditional art museums, MAPS positions itself much more as a museum for the ordinary person. This became clear when we considered the fact that the grand majority of their exhibitions are open to the public, and in fact, within the public space.

The Solution

When creating the audio logo, we came up with a few concepts all of which in some way related to the very particular challenges embedded in this project.

First, we experimented with field recording sounds of various materials. This was done to honor the real-world physical nature of the public spaces in which the MAPS art pieces are exhibited.
We decided to start the audio logo with the sound of crunching paper to symbolize the opening of a map, given that MAPS has various exhibitions all across the country. The opening of the map is meant to communicate the idea that in order to open one’s horizons, one has to ditch the map altogether and allow oneself to tread the untrodden path. You can hear this sound in the very beginning of the audio logo.

Continuing on this idea of art as the exploration of the untrodden path, we played with the idea of steps. The intuition here was to represent the steps necessary to navigate their open-air exhibitions. We wanted to give the steps some weight, as we saw that these were not only wandering steps but bold steps of discovery. That’s why we used stomps instead. Four stomps; each representing a letter in the MAPS acronym.

Finally, the stomps ended on a lush soundscape which mixes both real-world ambiance and digitally synthesized musical elements to represent the digital and real-world nature of MAPS, and to communicate the sense of a new horizon that was opened as a consequence of treading on this new challenging path.

Thanks to MAPS for the trust and confidence in us.