Library of Congress’ Citizen DJ project “invites the public to make hip hop music using the free-to-use audio and video collections from the Library of Congress.” This was created by Brian Foo while he was the “innovator in residence” at the Library.
You can explore sounds by choosing a collection at the top left, and then you can filter by different things at the bottom left.
Then if you find a sound you like, you can click “remix this” from the options at the bottom right, and you get to a mixing board where you can be a DJ of archival sounds.
Tree.fm lets you listen to forests from around the world. It is built on the “Sounds of the Forest” project, where anyone makes and submits recordings. You can share your forest recording to be included too.
Window Swap is a similar project in that anyone can send in a video of the view out their window and have it included. This project started at the beginning of the pandemic lockdown as a way to connect with people.
Mini Tokyo is an interactive real-time map of the Tokyo transit system. It shows the current location of trains, buses, and, curiously, helicopters. It includes an overlay of current weather, live webcams, and fireworks. It is more interesting to view during Tokyo daytime hours to really see the traffic. (Note that it does load very slowly at times in Chrome, it may be worth trying other browsers if that happens)
The data visualization is provided by Akihiko Kusanagi using data from the Public Transportation Open Data Center, which is based on data provided by the public transportation operators.
Patatap is an online “animation and sound kit.” You can create sounds and moving shapes either by using the space bar and typing on the keyboard or tapping the screen on a mobile device. (Warning: contains flashing images)
A related project is Typatone. By typing on the keyboard, you can create music. “The act of writing has always been an art. Now, it can also be an act of music.”
Both were created by computer programmer Jono Brandel and the Japanese electronic duo Lullatone, consisting of Shawn James Seymour and Yoshimi Tomida.
Radio Garden is an interactive map of thousands of live radio stations around the world.
“By bringing distant voices close, radio connects people and places. From its very beginning, radio signals have crossed borders. Radio makers and listeners have imagined both connecting with distant cultures, as well as re-connecting with people from ‘home’ from thousands of miles away.”
Cities and Memory’s Obsolete Sounds is a collection of disappearing and extinct sounds.
Cities and Memory is a worldwide sound project that they describe as “Encompassing field recording, sound art, and sound mapping, every location on the Cities and Memory sound map features two sounds: the original field recording of that place, and a reimagined sound that presents that place and time as somewhere else, somewhere new.”
This one is an interactive map to visualize your “footprint.” It lets you mark US States or European countries you have been to, indicating if you lived there, just passed through, want to go there, etc.
“Pearls of the Planet” is a collection of live webcams of animals and nature from all over the world. I particularly like the Aquarium of the Pacific’s tropical reef aquarium.
The collection is hosted by Explore.org, where the mission is “to allow people to experience nature up close and personal so they can fall in love with the world.”
A cockatiel playing peek-a-boo!