The Elephants of Trianon

See and hear large scale spatial audio and visuals on mural activation.

The Elephants of Trianon is an augmented-reality mural companion created by painter Teresa Parod and composer Bill Parod.

When viewed through the app, Teresa Parod’s murals come alive with image-triggered animation and spatial sound. Each mural activates a distinct audiovisual scene designed to deepen the experience of the artwork.

Rather than functioning as a game or visual overlay, the project invites attentive listening and viewing. Sound unfolds in response to the mural’s imagery, extending the paintings into time and space.

Features:

• Image-triggered augmented reality scenes • Spatialized sound designed for headphone listening • Unique audiovisual responses for each mural • A contemplative experience centered on perception and place

This application activates specific murals and may not function outside those locations.

For the best experience, visit the murals in person and use headphones.

The original work consists of ten adjacent murals painted on garage doors in a public alley; these form part of a larger international body of public mural works by the artist. For the International Computer Music Conference, the project is presented as a free-standing installation at TU Hamburg-Harburg, Germany using ten large construction-fence banners, each displaying one mural. These images are activated with this custom Augmented Reality app - The Elephants of Trianon. The mobile app responds to these images only and so must be pointed at one of them to activate.  ​ The installation's location and mural configuration at TUHH will be set on-site just before the ICMC (11-16 May, 2026). ​ Using this custom mobile app, visitors’ devices recognize each mural and anchor a corresponding three-dimensional audiovisual scene in space. As visitors move through the installation and activate additional murals, these scenes accumulate and blend, creating a continuously evolving environment rather than a sequence of isolated works. The installation therefore functions as a spatial composition shaped by listener movement, attention, and duration of engagement.

The soundscape combines field recordings made in Bali, New Orleans, and Chicago with instrumental layers and voices in ten languages. Animated three-dimensional forms—birds, bats, dogs, elephants, rabbits, and celestial figures—appear among the murals, along with subtle video textures and custom shaders that bring painted elements into motion. Some virtual elements are not confined to a single mural but move through the installation space, responding to the physical layout and dimensions of the exhibition environment.

The artists wish to express their deep appreciation to the International Computer Music Conference, Ligeti Zentrum, and TU Hamburg-Harburg for their support and assistance in producing the banners and presenting this installation. ​ Painter Teresa Parod has created over one hundred works of public art in the United States, Cuba, Bali, Nepal, and Istanbul. In Cuba, she was honored to work with mosaicist José Fuster, whose work inspired her creation of art in unexpected and underused spaces. These as well as her vibrant, luminous oil paintings can be seen at teresaparod.com.

Bill Parod is a composer who creates spatial music environments shaped by harmonic tuning, generative processes, and evolving sonic systems. His work develops listening fields in which musical ecologies emerge through relationships among sound, movement, and attention, often in collaboration with painter Teresa Parod.