SK808 is a proof-of-concept for a skate park installation that Mindride developed and iterated on throughout 2014. Playing with the idea of outfitting the terrain of a half pipe or an entire skate park with force sensitive resistors, contact microphones, capacitive strips, and weight-sensitive trigger pads, we devised a concept for an interactive multimedia soundscape controlled live by the position of skaters within the park as they grab the rim of a half-pipe, pass over certain stretches of the bowl, grind against certain edges, etc.

As skaters moved throughout the course, they would essentially act as a giant 2D crossfader for a continuous mix of breakbeats and funk samples, triggering DJ effects and style-matched samples to play, aesthetically akin to seminal works like Beastie Boys’ Paul’s Boutique or the turntablist work of folks like Cut Chemist and DJ Numark from Jurassic 5. In addition to their skating driving a live soundscape, we also combined many of the techniques we had already been working on at the studio involving theater production effects such as bursts of fog, triggering lighting sequences, and more.