Bola Sociology Design

China: Louis Vuitton Soundwalk Audio Landscapes

August 20th, 2008

The oh-so-desirable luxury travel items brand Louis Vuitton is known not only for its products, but also for the excelent city guides it’s been publishing for over 10 years. The brand has recently teamed up with Soundwalk, a company specialized in audio walks, to produce soundtracks for urban tourism in the Louis Vuitton Soundwalk project, the first digital product of the traditional brand in its 154 years of history. The cities chosen for this pilot project were Shanghai, Hong Kong, and Beijing. Check out more images and videos after the jump.

The Louis Vuitton brand, which has been endorsed by celebrities such as Keith Richards, Sofia Copolla, and Mikhail Gorbachev, has now teamed up with three Chinese actresses to show tourists around the streets of the cities chosen for the Louis Vuitton Soundwalk project: Gong Li in Beijing, Shu Qi in Hong Kong, and Joan Chen in Shanghai. Check out the demo videos below.

The mp3 tracks are available at the project’s website for US$18 a piece, and come with a map including the walk’s itinerary. All tourists have to do is plug in their headphones and let themselves be guided around the streets, listening to the narration and getting to know more about the local culture and history. The project’s next edition will explore European cities and the legendary New York City.

Tomorrow’s topic is urban art. See you then.