World Map

Soundscape, X Media Lab: Global Media Ideas
Held as part of X Media Lab's annual summit Global Media Ideas, Soundscape was a 3D audio demonstration created and hosted by Martyn Ware of Illustrious Company.
Located within the iconic Sydney Opera House, Global Media Ideas was a two day event comprising a conference and a number of workshops exploring the cultural and commercial possibilities of new media.
Performing to a packed conference of media and creative businesses and entrepeuners, Soundscape was a demonstration of the sonic architectural capabilities of the 3D AudioScape system.
Go to project page
In partnership with New South Wales Government, ABC Television, Screen NSW, Sydney Opera House.

The Creators Project: Beijing 2010
Working alongside artist, musician and composer Nick Zinner (Yeah Yeah Yeahs), Illustrious provided spatialised 3D sound for an original original composition written by Zinner, which featured as part of The Creators Project World Tour.
Titled A.D.A.B.A., the installation consisted of a set of tall, black pleated fabric walls on which LED boards printed with Zinner’s photographs were hung. Within this closed off space, visitors were exposed to an 18 minute long composition by Zinner, with sound spatialised in three dimensions by Martyn Ware of Illustrious.
Launched in New York, A.D.A.B.A. went on to tour across the globe as...
Go to project page
In partnership with Intel and Vice.

The Creators Project: Seoul 2010
Working alongside artist, musician and composer Nick Zinner (Yeah Yeah Yeahs), Illustrious provided spatialised 3D sound for an original original composition written by Zinner, which featured as part of The Creators Project World Tour.
Titled A.D.A.B.A., the installation consisted of a set of tall, black pleated fabric walls on which LED boards printed with Zinner’s photographs were hung. Within this closed off space, visitors were exposed to an 18 minute long composition by Zinner, with sound spatialised in three dimensions by Martyn Ware of Illustrious.
Launched in New York, A.D.A.B.A. went on to tour across th...
Go to project page
In partnership with Intel and Vice.

The Creators Project: São Paulo 2010
Working alongside artist, musician and composer Nick Zinner (Yeah Yeah Yeahs), Illustrious provided spatialised 3D sound for an original original composition written by Zinner, which featured as part of The Creators Project World Tour.
Titled A.D.A.B.A., the installation consisted of a set of tall, black pleated fabric walls on which LED boards printed with Zinner’s photographs were hung. Within this closed off space, visitors were exposed to an 18 minute long composition by Zinner, with sound spatialised in three dimensions by Martyn Ware of Illustrious.
Launched in New York, A.D.A.B.A. went on to tour across th...
Go to project page
In partnership with Intel and Vice.

The Creators Project: New York City 2010
Working alongside artist, musician and composer Nick Zinner (Yeah Yeah Yeahs), Illustrious provided spatialised 3D sound for an original original composition written by Zinner, which featured as part of The Creators Project World Tour.
Titled A.D.A.B.A., the installation consisted of a set of tall, black pleated fabric walls on which LED boards printed with Zinner’s photographs were hung. Within this closed off space, visitors were exposed to an 18 minute long composition by Zinner, with sound spatialised in three dimensions by Martyn Ware of Illustrious.
Launched in New York, A.D.A.B.A. went on to tour across th...
Go to project page
In partnership with Intel and Vice.

YSL Belle D’Opium Fragrance Launch
Working alongside SKRAPIC Consulting, Illustrious Company created a 3D Sound installation that featured as part of the multi sensual “experience room” at the relaunch party of Yves Sant Laurent’s Belle D’Opium fragrance.
At the event, attended by a host of celebrities, guests were ushered into the YSL “experience room” in which sounds, smells and visuals were conjured to evoke the new fragrance.
Go to project page
In partnership with SKRAPIC Consulting and Yves Saint Laurent.

Conceptualisation (proposal)
A proposed project for the Chinese State Pavilion at the Shanghai World’s Fair, Conceptualisation was a large scale video cube featuring Illustrious Company sound pieces.
Planned by Jack Morton Associates in collaboration with Illustrious, Conceptualisation would have been a 30x30 meter square structure with suspended walkway featuring visual projections across each wall with 3D sound from Illustrious.
Go to project page

Virtual Rome
Created as part of the Rome Reborn interactive learning tool and installed at the 2008 Siggraph Conference in Las Vegas, Virtual Rome was a 3D digital model of the anicent city that featured sound and music by Illustrious Company.
Installed by designer Sebastijan Jemec, Virtual Rome was part of an international initiative called Rome Reborn, whose goal was to create 3D digital models illustrating the urban development of ancient Rome from the first settlement in the late Bronze Age (c. 1000 B.C.) through to the depopulation of the city in the early Middle Ages (c. A.D. 550).
Go to project page
In partnership with the University of Virginia and the Virtual World Heritage Laboratory.
Hearts on Fire
Commissioned by exclusive diamond jewelry retailer Hearts on Fire, Illustrious created a series of 3D Soundscapes to play in their new stores that were opening across the globe.
Like the diamonds themselves these compositions were one offs that used spatialised sound to provide customers with an immersive retail experience.
Go to project page
Audio Sample

Rome Reborn
Working in collaboration with Bernard Frischer and the University of Virginia, Illustrious created concept 3D soundscapes to accompany the 3D visualisation Rome Reborn.
Rome Reborn was an international initiative whose goal was to create 3D digital models illustrating the urban development of ancient Rome from the first settlement in the late Bronze Age (c. 1000 B.C.) to the depopulation of the city in the early Middle Ages (c. A.D. 550).
Go to project page
In partnership with the University of Virginia and the Virtual World Heritage Laboratory.

AT&T GNOC Exhibition Centre
Specially commissioned by multinational telecommunications company AT&T, Illustrious composed and installed a series of 3D soundscapes to feature in the companies base in New Jersey.
The three immersive soundscapes created by Illustrious act as a futuristic ambience for AT&T’s up to the minute Global Network Operations Centre were they are permanently installed.
Go to project page
Audio Sample

New City
Conceived as part of the Design and the Elastic Mind exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art, New York (MoMA), ‘New City’ was a conceptual imagining of a giant virtual urban structure that would house the world's population.
Created by Peter Frankfurt, Alex McDowell, Greg Lynn and Imaginary Forces, ‘New City’ featured an architecturally-scaled immersive media environment that served as the trailer to the concept of a living virtual world that is parallel and simultaneous to ours.
To accompany the video-narrative, Martyn Ware of Illustrious Company created a three-dimensional...
Go to project page
Remote
Composed by Illustrious in collaboration with artists at Fabrica, ‘Remote’ was a live three-dimensional responsive soundscape performed in the Triad Media Gallery at the Seoul Biennale.
Exploring the relationships between the artists and the audience, between the audience and the artwork, and among the audience themselves, the piece was featured as part of an exhibition called ‘I’ve Been Waiting For You’, and was a interactive/generative installation that used real time input from webcams all around the world to create constantly evolving audio loops and patterns.
Funded by the Benetton group, Fabrica is a unique research institution that encourages the creative development of selected y...
Go to project page
Audio Sample

Sound Cube at New Sound New York
Commissioned by the New Sound New York festival, Martyn Ware and Vince Clarke of Illustrious created a three dimensional soundscape that played in Charles Morrow’s immersive audio installation Sound Cube.
Illustrious’ composition was one of twelve to be played in the Sound Cube, alongside such other artists and composers as Olivia Block, Shelley Hirsch, Miya Masaoka, Steve McCaffrey, Charles Morrow, Phill Niblock, Michael J. Schumacher, Scanner, Stephen Vitiello, and Pamela Z.
The installation was curated by Charles Morrow, Stephen Vitiello and Christina Yang, and featured as part of New Sound New York, a citywide festival of performances, installations and public dialogues featuring new...
Go to project page
In partnership with New Sound New York and The Kitchen.

Sweetly The Air Flew Overhead
Working in collaboration with Cathy De Monchaux, Illustrious provided the three dimensional soundscapes for Sweetly The Air Flew Overhead an exhibition of visual, sculptural, and sonic art.
A Turner-Prize Nominated artist, Cathy De Monchaux’s work defies categorisation, and she has over a number of years exhibited extensively across the world.
For this innovative exhibition, Illustrious created a 3D soundscape composed of calls to prayer from around the world, layered together with recordings of Cathy reading extracts from her private diaries.
Go to project page
Virtual Wishing Tree
As part of the Interfaith Centre’s ‘Sacred Waterways of New York Exhibition’, ‘Virtual Wishing Tree’ was a unique audio composition created by Vince Clarke and Martyn Ware of Illustrious.
Inspired by the ancient Shinto ritual of pinning dreams and hopes to a wishing tree, Illustrious collected wishes from visitors in the gallery who called a special telephone number and were asked to leave their wish ‘after the beep’.
These recordings were transferred into the Illustrious audio system and transformed into a unique composition, with ambient musical accompaniment provided by Clarke and Ware.
Go to project page

Sound Oasis
Created to coincide with the 70th anniversary of the Mexico City’s Palacio de Bellas Artes, Sound Oasis showcased especially commissioned site and time specific work from twelve international artists.
Playing twenty four hours a day seven days a week over a two month period, the purpose of the installation was to create a Sound Oasis that interacted with the surrounding urban context and lush South American climate.
For the project, Illustrious teamed up with Arup acoustics to install the three dimensional audio system as well as spacialise the soundscapes created by the twelve artists.
Go to project page
In partnership with Banamex, Noise Lab, and Arup Acoustics.
Audio Sample
Rebirth of the World
The Seattle Art Museum presents Chiho Aoshima: Rebirth of the World, a fantasy world, a colourful large-scale dreamscape printed on plexiglass, created by the Japanese artist Chiho Aoshima to celebrate “the evolution of human evolution” and uses a soundscape created by Illustrious.
Go to project page

Liquid Histories
In collaboration with Central Saint Martins and Aberrant Architects, Illustrious has created an immense 3D soundscape in collaboration with Central Saint Martins and Aberrant Architects in Shanghai as part of their Shanghai Urban Space Art Season 2017.
'Liquid Histories - The Thames between imaginary and reality'
The installation presents these liquid histories of the Thames by exploring the tension between the Thames as imaginary and reality. It reflects on the river as a public space of the imagination and the denial of that space through the codes and economies of recent developments. A bench traces the route and shape of the Thames from Blackfriars to Dagenham. On its back a series of facts presents the reality of the Thames, particularly as it incr...
Go to project page
Illustrious Curate UK Section of Solstice 2016
Martyn and his son Gabriel Ware are proud to be involved as curators and composers for solstice2016.com, an epic worldwide online cultural event.
Solstice celebrations have existed for as long as people have been looking at the sun, especially for indigenous peoples whose habitats were closely tied to the cycle of the sun and earth, the solstice was a marked point in the year. Whether celebrating the day the sun never sets, or celebrating the rebirth of sunlight after the darkest period o...
Go to project page
Dr Strangelove collaboration with Eclectic Method
Martyn Ware, Multimedia artist, 3D soundscapist and professor has teamed up with Eclectic Method to remix Dr. Strangelove. With relations between East and West at such an ambiguous point and the Doomsday Clock closer to midnight then it's been since the Cuban Missile Crisis what better time to revisit the Stanley Kubrick Classic.
"You can't fight in here this is war room"
Go to project page
The illustrious portfolio includes installations, events and performance works alongside many media projects.
Illustrious has developed projects for organisations such as BP, The British Council, Sony Computer Entertainments Europe, The National Trust, The Science Museum, The Royal Ballet, V&A, Amnesty International, Unilever and Museum of London.
Illustrious often collaborates with other creative partners such as IMAGES&Co, Jason Bruges Studio and New Angle, amongst many others.