Concrete Crickets derives its concept (and name) from two sources -- urban graffiti and field crickets.

Graffiti is one of the most powerful and most personal displays in the urban experience, and can be used to make statements, tag territory, spread messages -- urban markup language in practice. However, the output is nearly always visual in nature, making this experience one-dimensional. Furthermore, rarely does the work have a brain of its own, and is usually incapable of reacting to anybody observing it.
Concrete Crickets was created to address this deficit, creating small devices that will be aware of passers-by as well as other units of their kind. Each unit consists of a sound generator, amp, speaker and sensory system, and is housed in camouflage appropriate to the streets of the city -- soda cans, cigarette packs, and the like.
This project aims to create, by installing small “crickets” in a small area of city space, a multi-directional audio experience. Each device is programmed with a particular voice, with each being part of a larger whole. When night falls, the crickets go active for a few hours, singing out in their particular way. When approached, the crickets fall silent (as would crickets and cicadas in nature). Each are sensitive to what happens to the others, and the end result will be waves of songs, changing and adapting to their surroundings.

I love the streets of this (and just about any other) city, but it seems to me that the "magic" moments of serendipity are harder to come by. If this project can just create one moment of magic and beauty (corny as both those terms can be), than it will have succeeded with flying colors.

Inpsiried by field crickets and fireflies on one hand and street artists on the other, this project seeks to add and audio element to street art.

Anybody who walks on NYC streets at night, ideally.

As darkness falls, the crickets begin to chirp. They are aware of others of their kind, and if they hear one, they'll respond in song. If they detect movement near them, they fall silent, and will not resume their song until they feel they're alone. Much like trying to catch crickets in a field, users might not even be able to find the "crickets," but hopefully they can enjoy the songs and the moment they're experiencing.

Each unit is a speaker-amp-microcontroller-mp3-player combination housed in street debris -- soda cans, cigarette packs, etc.