Schrödinger’s Boombox: Debuting at KC Fringe Fest, Sound Mandala teleports listeners to other worlds

Tom Mardikes // Photo by Ellen Beshuk

I sit with anticipation in the center of a dimly lit room. At the first sharp sounds of typewriting, I am unnerved as my eyes search around and behind for its source. What starts as a random click here or there begins to unify and revolve around me into a sensation the composer compares to Starling birds’ flight. Then, silence. As my mind returns to the center of the room, I see, not birds in flight, but walls of speakers.

Surrounded by dozens of speakers, each one devoted to a single sound, I experienced audio like never before: The Sound Mandala.

The Sound Mandala is a room with 80+ speakers on every wall, with even the floor immersing listeners in a web of sounds. Each song or dialogue plays all around the audience, encasing them in an intense story where sound transforms into a vivid, sensory experience.

Behind my chair stands the creator of this Sound Mandala, Tom Mardikes, Professor of Sound Design at the University of Missouri-Kansas City (UMKC).

A demonstration for the editorial staff of The Pitch. // Photo by Brock Wilbur

“While it starts as just random notes, you can start to see the shape that the patterns make as they move around the room,” Mardikes says. “Some people say, it sounds like they are inside a guitar, inside the music.”

Another composition is loaded; This time, a dialogue of an eternal female spirit, recounting her rage against the world and her cursed existence. Although nothing is shown, I know we are near a stony beach and crashing waves. The crisp, salty air and terrifying voice fill the room. I am the woman feeling fury as goosebumps run up my arm. A colossal scaled monster approaches my rampage. Its footsteps shake the ground, his power is discernible, but my voice goes on unthreatened. As my anger mounts, the sounds fade, and I am once again facing the speakers.

Instead of the usual amplified output that presents the arrangement as an already mixed, complete piece, each sound is precisely outputted from one speaker at a time and interpreted by the audience. As eyes track the movement of the audio, the mind tries to form an image of what it might be experiencing.

Sound Mandala Speakers // Photo by Ellen Beshuk

Mardikes’ unique fascination began with what he calls “air mixing.” Rather than mixing the instruments and vocals in the console, he wondered how a song would differ when mixed in the air.

He began experimenting with this technology in 1997 and wanted to discover just how much sound humans can perceive. What originally attracted researchers from all over the country, is now being compared to the advancement of moving images.

“I’ve had an undying curiosity and passion for multi-channel, immersive sound,” Mardikes says. “I’m most interested in the sound an audience member is hearing that sounds like real life.”

With the help of graduate students from around the world, Mardikes tested this method at the BlackBox theater in 2015. This venue allowed listeners to hear shapes and patterns through air mixing for the first time. Two years later, the Sound Mandala grew to a 40-speaker room in a small office next to Mardikes’ at UMKC, which is no longer standing.

Just as the Tibetan monks precisely place grains of sand into their spiral mandala designs, each sound is carefully curated for a specific time and space, allowing audio to take shape and immerse anyone listening.

Tom Mardikes // Photo by Ellen Beshuk

Mardikes’ background in theater and sound design informs where he places the audio to steer the audience’s reaction, whether it’s making the hair stand on the back of their neck or feeling like they are orbiting in space.

“The experience or feeling you have is really dependent on the track,” Mardikes says. “You can have more undulating music for dialogues or more textured sound that could stir a different reaction, depending on what you want your audience to feel.”

Sound Mandala Side Speakers // Photo by Ellen Beshuk

With the technology directly deprived from Kansas City, the Sound Mandala will be debuting locally at the KC Fringe Festival, the largest celebration of arts and culture in town. This showing will include pop, rock, jazz, and Celtic tracks, and several short, dialogue scenes. With double the speakers on the ceiling, floor, and wall, the audience can be some of the first people to take part in this new way of experiencing one of their five senses.

“Immersed in a symphony of orchestrated sounds emanating from various locations, altered my perception of size and space, evoking smells, memories, and vivid visuals,” Executive Director of the KC Fringe Festival Audrey Crabtree says.

“This kind of immersive experience aligns perfectly with our mission at the KC Fringe Festival, where we strive to celebrate the innovative and unique arts in Kansas City.”

The Fringe Festival is just the beginning as Mardikes has many ideas for what this project may become. With the ability to mix any genre of music, and tell any type of story, permanent Sound Mandala structures could begin to pop up around Kansas City and beyond.

Spaces like museums, galleries, and haunted houses could create a new level of immersion for eventgoers with this technology, and could even be used alongside visual storytelling with dance and film.

“I’m mostly focused on what we can do with audio right now, but eventually, we could add and get a really visually immersive experience,” Mardikes says. “That isn’t the focus right now, and I don’t think it necessarily needs to be tied to a visual.”

While there are samples on the Sound Mandala website, none hold a candle to the experience within the vessel. With speakers on every surface, Mardikes plans to bring an experience to remember at the KC Fringe Festival, July 18-28.

A demonstration for the editorial staff of The Pitch. // Photo by Brock Wilbur