Acoustically driven cavitation bubble fields consist of typically 104 micron-sized bubbles. Due to their nonlinear hydroacoustical interaction, these extended multiscale systems exhibit the phenomenon of spatiotemporal structure formation. Apart from its significance for the theory of self-organization, it plays a major role in design and control of many industrial and medical applications. Prominent examples are ultrasound cleaning, sono-chemistry and medical diagnostics. From a fundamental point of view the key question to ask is ‘‘How does the fast dynamics on small length scales determine the global slow dynamics of the bubble field?’’ To clarify the complex interplay of acoustical and hydrodynamical forces acting on the bubbles, we employ high-speed particle tracking velocimetry. This technique allows the three-dimensional reconstruction of the bubbles’ trajectories on small and fast scales as well as the measurement of the bubble density on large and slow scales. A theoretical model is derived that describes the nonlinear radial and translational dynamics of the individual bubbles and their interaction. The numerical solution of this N body problem is presented.