Megapolis Audio Festival

This weekend, the streets of Cambridge and Boston teemed with audiophiles for the very first Megapolis Audio Festival. Lovers of sound from as far away as Florida twisted circuits, listened to the sound of global warming, and played a slew of audio games.

Writer Laura Silver read a room full of audio geeks a very short story about a gun, a drug deal, and a chase through a Hasidic neighborhood. Then everyone grabbed their favorite sound effects files and went to work making it an audio story. Brendan Baker, a producer from New York, was one of several people who turned that story into a soundscape.

Another Megapolis game came from public radio superstar producers Ann Hepperman and Kara Oehler. They passed out ten different sound effects, set the clock for 30 minutes, and dared everyone to come up with a one-minute piece. We’re listening to what Amber Cortes from Brooklyn created while the clock was ticking.

Those are just two of the sonic landscapes created at this weekend's Megapolis Audio Festival. We were all there to represent Word of Mouth and to listen to new directions in audio production and storytelling, and to be inspired by some of the amazingly creative people who make the world sound a lot more interesting.

(Photo courtesy of Ann Hepperman)