NYT-1201: STATE OF THE ART A Thermostat That's Clever, Not ...

led the Beatmap. As they drove the car across the
Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah, the beats overlappe
d, creating complex mash-ups.
But Bluebrain’s project goes further, creating mus
ic that not only must be listened to in a specific
place but also is inspired by the landscape itsel
f.
“It’s not just that they are using this as a novel
delivery mechanism,” said Peter Kirn, an electron
ic composer who edits the Web site Create Digital
Music. “It’s part of their musical process. They a
re forcing you to go to a place because that place
for them is musically meaningful.”
The idea for such a project came to the Holladay b
rothers more than two years ago, as they brainstor
med about ways to use new applications available f
or the iPhone. “Wouldn’t it be cool if there were
an album that you would interact with in Central P
ark?” Hays recalled saying. “Then we started think
ing about what would you be controlling, and we ca
me to the idea of: What if it were your movement?”
It was easier said than done. It took months to fi
nd Brian Feldman, a Brooklyn software developer wh
o was willing to work for little money up front. T
hey worked out bugs in the program as they compose
d their first location-aware piece of music for th
e National Mall in their hometown; they released t
hat app in May.
Mr. Feldman wrote a new software engine, which he
named Sscape, for the application, borrowing ideas
from video games that have different sound effect
s and background music tied to places in their vir
tual worlds. To use the program, the composers est
ablish map coordinates for each track, and those t
racks, usually loops of several minutes, are set o
ff as the listener approaches. Last month the brot
hers hired a second software firm, Zamtools, in To