200 ACRES - a soundwalk through memories of wildness (2023)

200 ACRES is an immersive and site-specific soundwalk through the PSU campus and the arboretum about how we shape the nature around us, and how nature shapes us. An invitation to see the extraordinary in the mundane.

To experience the soundwalk, you download a custom-built app and bring your own mobile device and headphones. The experience starts in front of the Eisenhower Auditorium. From there, the app will guide you through known and lesser-known paths, shedding a new perspective on familiar places. Your location and movements will conjure the sound and text you are hearing.

Layered with disarming metaphors, historical details, and personal musings, 200 ACRES will take you on a personal meditation through the physical, cultural, and geographical landscapes we inhabit.

Project website: www.200acreswalk.com

200 ACRES is the second in a tryptic of works titled the ACRES series - a series of geolocated soundwalks built in the video game engine UNITY, that cast the landscape and the natural environment as the main character and as a canvas for refection.

Presented by Center for the Performing Arts at Penn State

In association with UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television

Created by Marike Splint in collaboration with

Jonathan Snipes - Original Music, Sound Design and Implementation

Stewart Blackwood - App Developer and Technical Sound Design          

Cristina Bercovitz- App User Interface and Visual Design    

Jon Massey- Additional Sound Design and Implementation

Website by David Rothbaum            

Very special thanks to the following partners & individuals:

The Arboretum at Penn State, Palmer Museum of Art at Penn State, Brandi Breslin, Sa’ida Bronner, Madeline Cantu, B. Stephen Carpenter II, Erin Coe, Molly Countermine, Travis Edwards, Christopher Fleeger, Rita Graef, Jenn Hooven, Nadine S. Houck, Anthony Leach, Casey Sclar, Maura Shea, Roger Tharp and Ed Zueck.

200 Acres is part of The Reflection Project at the Center for the Performing Arts at Penn State, funded by the Mellon Foundation.

PRESS on 200 acreS

Feature about 200 ACRES on the PSU campus: Longley, Heather (June 27, 2023) Artist's app leads users on an introspective University Park walking experience