Urban Rhythmability

“Urban Rhythmability” is a work that explores the structural rhythmicity of the city and plays music with the rhythm of the city. The project begins by filming every aspect of the Roppongi landscape from the TOKYO CITY VIEW on the 52nd floor of Roppongi Hills Mori Tower. Using a machine learning program, it detects the movement of objects in Roppongi (people, cars, trains, traffic lights, etc.) and generates rhythms from these objects, which are then used as notes on a musical score. The rhythms, the environmental sounds collected by field recording in Roppongi, and the musical sounds are then used as equal parts to compose a piece of music that can be played by the city of Roppongi.

About Kenta Tanaka

Kenta Tanaka is a Sound / Music / Urban Composer whose work focuses on the relationships between sound and cities. Through field recordings and soundscape composition, he explores what part of cities can be understood through listening to soundscapes, and how designing soundscapes affects cities themselves. His practice involves collecting environmental sounds from various urban environments, creating fictional soundscapes, and composing music that lets listeners travel imaginatively through listening to composed soundscapes.

Technical Approach

The installation employs machine learning algorithms for object detection and tracking in real-time video feeds. The system identifies and tracks various elements of the urban landscape, converting their movement patterns into rhythmic data. These detected rhythms serve as the foundation for generative music composition, creating a dynamic soundscape that reflects the living, breathing nature of the city below.

Field Recording and Soundscape Composition

The environmental sounds collected through field recording in Roppongi form an essential component of the composition. These sounds—traffic, footsteps, distant conversations, the hum of urban infrastructure—provide the sonic texture of the city. When combined with the algorithmically generated rhythms and musical elements, they create a layered composition where each element carries equal weight. This approach mirrors the complex, polyphonic nature of urban environments themselves.

Exhibition at TOKYO CITY VIEW

The work was exhibited at TOKYO CITY VIEW on the 52nd floor of Roppongi Hills Mori Tower as part of the TOKYO culture research program. This location provided an ideal vantage point for capturing the full scope of urban activity in Roppongi, with panoramic views extending across the district. From this height, the installation could observe the city as a complete system, detecting patterns and rhythms that emerge from the collective movement of people, vehicles, and infrastructure.

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