Moment Factory creates an interactive urban installation to 'give voice’ to citizens and visitors in Montreal

Audiovisual artistic specialist Moment Factory has created a multimedia and interactive urban installation in Montreal, Megaphone, that 'gives voice' to all people while their words are projected on a large visual facade.

At a time when cities are looking for new ways to energize their streets and public spaces with new technologies, The interactive Mégaphone installation in the Canadian city of Montreal invites citizens and visitors to gather in the city center to explore the festive side of public speaking and interaction.

The Megaphone initiative, that the past began 4 September and will be available to citizens until next 4 November, was the work of the National Film Board of Canada and Quartier des Spectacles, with a multimedia and interactive show created by the audiovisual artistic specialist Moment Factory.

Inspired by the history of the city of Montreal, as well as in the 19th century British tradition of the 'Speaker's Corner' and in popular assemblies, Mégaphone adds all this in an interactive and multimedia experience that combines video, lightning, sound and special effects around a megaphone through which anyone can speak, express your concerns and be heard, as his words are projected onto a grand visual façade.

Mégaphone is a visual and interactive art installation “about the reappropriation of public space, that offers all people to speak loud and clear and the opportunity to join that debate”, those responsible for Moment Factory explain.

When participants speak, Their voices are transformed in real time into images projected on the façade of the University of Quebec in Montreal (UQAM), leaving its visual 'mark' on the urban landscape.

The speaker's words are also transferred to a voice recognition system, developed especially for the Mégaphone initiative by the Montreal IT Resource Center (CRIM).

A transcription of the words is then used to enhance the visual space projected onto the façade, as well as to feed the database of video content that is projected when the megaphone is not in use, so that it reflects both what is being said at that moment, as an overview of the sound clips that have been stored from all speakers.

This multimedia and interactive experience is structured in three urban areas: the square, surrounded by animated containers with light, projection and special effects where anyone can speak using a megaphone; the façade of the UQAM building in which projections of visual effects generated by the voice recognition of the speakers are made, and the area at the foot of the speakers, which features a special audiovisual installation to showcase seven key figures who, with your words, have shaped public space in Montreal.

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