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This sound map offers an example of the work I will create during my residency as a participant in Social Dive 2027, presented within the context of the Tokyo Biennale. Installed on Panda Bridge at Ueno Station, this location-based sound map will introduce how to interact with the GPS and geolocative technologies. Using a smartphone and earbuds, participants will explore eight soundscapes embedded in specific locations along the bridge. Each soundscape will feature recordings of birds native to the Neotropics, a biogeographic region encompassing Latin America and the Caribbean. As participants move through the map, they will hear the birdsongs emerge, overlap, and intersect, transforming their perception of the surrounding environment.

To better understand how a GPS-sensitive sound map works, it is helpful to first understand geolocative technology. Geolocative technology can identify and use your location on Earth. It relies on location data to make maps, provide directions, and create interactive, location-based experiences. For example, Google Maps uses GPS and other positioning systems to determine where you are and help you navigate the world through your smartphone.

In this workshop, you will use geolocative technology in a different way. Rather than using it only for navigation, you will move through the area delimited by the red circles to discover soundscapes placed in specific locations. Through this experience, you will hear how digital sound responds to your physical movement while exploring the diverse birdsongs of Latin America and the Caribbean. Many of these birds depend on migration for their survival, connecting distant regions through their movement across territories..

How to Access:
To experience this interactive sound map, go to the Panda Bridge t Ueano Station with a smartphone and a pair of headphones. As you move through the area marked by the circles, you will discover a different soundscape within each one. Your movement, together with your phone’s GPS, will activate and deactivate these sounds, creating an interactive experience through which you can listen to birdsongs recorded in natural environments across Latin America.

Step 01: Walk to the area marked by the red circles.

Step 02: Before entering the marked area, click the “Start” button and allow access to your location.

Step 03: Put on your earbuds and move through the space as shown in the following video:

x-o.global is a public sound art project led by artist, researcher, and educator Jerónimo Reyes-Retana (b. Mexico City). Reyes-Retana’s work examines the poetics of infrastructure and the politics of noise within the ‘colonial voids’ of Latin America. Reyes-Retana defines colonial voids as populations and territories threatened by practices of erasure intrinsic to the pursuit of progress. Through community-based strategies grounded in listening and investigative aesthetics, his practice scrutinizes regimes of (in)visibility by working directly with affected communities. Reyes-Retana’s work has been exhibited and supported by numerous international institutions. In 2025, Reyes-Retana received the CIFO x Ars Electronica Award and was recently selected as a member of Mexico’s National System of Art Creators.

x-o.global is a project supported by The Ministry of Culture of Mexico, the Museum of Latin American Art (MOLAA) and the University of Colorado Boulder in the United States, and Toda la Teoría del Universo in Chile.

Publications:
Reyes-Retana, Jerónimo. “A Narration of x-o.global: First Steps toward the Perversion of GPS in the Tropical Cartographies of Latin American Migration.” In Sociology Lens: Carceral Edgelands, Alberta, Canada: Wiley, 2023.

Contact: j.reyes-retana@colostate.edu

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