Hello
To everybody who was a part of the project performed on thursday 3/4…
Thanks for your interest and participation. You can now see the pictures in the bottom of this site. We think the project was a great succes…
| For the assignment we are to develop a project for a place influenced by INTERSECTIONS. The project should aim to heighten a feeling of PRIVACY based on the idea of IDLING. |
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Table of Contents
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Practical Information
Phonenumbers:
Fredrik - 28195187
Emma- 60629589
Lilli - 22636960
Gry - 22327440
Mini assignment in class- 11/03
Our first category was ‘social and semantic’ mapping. We had to devise a project on the spot because we hadn’t come up with a scenario yet. Our improvised scenario was to try and get people at an intersection to stop and tell us where they were going, and draw their route for us on a big map we would have. They could include subjective pictures about their destination, for example if they were going to see someone they could draw a picture of that person.
We then had to change it to the category of ‘locative media’. We thought that we could ask the people we spoke to to send as an sms an hour after they’d left the intersection to tell us where they were. We would then upload this information on a map onto the internet so that everyone could see where people had dispersed to.
The Concept of Intersection Couch
To emphasize/heighten a feeling of privacy and idling in an intersection we decided to try to create an idling atmosphere in the number one idling space of Århus: the pedestrian crossing in front of the train station. This is a place that's characterized by idling (as people are most often waiting for something or someone) and it's a normal phenomenon that people will entertain themselves while waiting by listening to music on MP3-players - and thereby creating a bubble of privacy.
What we want to do is to bring attention to the fact of this bubble by passively encouraging them to pay more attention to the closed sphere/bubble music-listening creates in a public space. We will therefore build a homely, private environment with living room furniture, a carpet framing the closedness of the private sphere and a set of giant headphones containing louder speakers than those in regular headphones. The headphones will then play for more than one person and thereby break the bubble, but being shaped like the one-person-only gadget it will bring attention to the fact that music-listening is a closed and privacy-creating act performed in the public.
The concept being that we will provide the feeling of privacy and idling, i.e. a cosy environment and coffee and cookies - and then the participants will (hopefully) bring the music. We want to heighten / emphasize the feeling of privacy in public. We are hoping for people to emerge from their private music bubble and join us in our private public environment.
To document the reactions of our project we will also provide a guestbook and encourage the participants to share their thoughts of the project and of music in public space.
Refined project
We've changed a small part of our project after the feedback from Johanne and Lone. To really emphasize the feeling of privacy, the speakers in the original project is instead changed to giant headphones containing the speakers. The music will still be shared (being loud enough for everybody to hear) but the headphones (being a one-person-only gadget) will hopefully give the idea of music-listening in public space as a private act.
Theory from Class
Erving Goffman’s ‘Behaviour in Public Places; notes on the social organization of gatherings’:
Our project was performed outside the Aarhus train station, a place where Goffman’s ‘unfocused interaction’ is most common. This means there is an acknowledgment of other people, but no real engagement. Outside the train station this form of communication is prevalent, unless people are meeting each other there.
We especially targeted people listening to i-pods, which can be seen to act as a kind of ‘involvement shield’ or ‘subordinate involvement’. I-pods become ‘subordinate involvement’ because when someone is listening to their i-pod at the train station it’s not usually their primary activity, instead they are generally on their way to catch a train or some other activity. By having huge headphones and speakers for passerbys to plug their ipods into, our project sought to make listening to music the ‘main involvement’ for a while. Also we disrupted the ‘involvement shield’ or ‘privacy’ because we asked people to share their music with us. This meant that the music became a means of interacting with other people instead of signaling a private activity.
We also experimented with Goffman’s ideas about ‘the rule against ‘having no purpose’’'. We were aiming to hault people in their purpose for a moment, and instead encourage them to ‘idle’ with us. Thus we were interrupting the usual pattern of behaviour in such public spaces, whereby everyone is moving through with a clear purpose in mind (or at least in behaviour). In the performance of our project the reactions from people passing by varied quite a lot, and perhaps these reflected the degree to which their behaviour was modified by society’s expectations. It was clear that the majority of people were not comfortable breaking out of their purposeful mode.
Interestingly too, many of those who did stop and chat to us could be perhaps characterized as ‘outsiders’, in the dominant Danish society. For example, people from ethnic minorities, a newspaper seller from Romania, punks, and others, all stopped to have a drink or share some music. This could reflect the fact that as they are already on the fringe of mainstream society it is not so confronting for them to participate in such an ‘urban experiment’ as our project.
J.P. Thibaud: The Sonic Composition of the City
Thibaud's essay on the sonic composition of the city focuses on the how new sonic territories are created in the urban space when the walkman-listener enters the envoironment.
In relation to our project, Thibaud talks about the relationshipship between the listener and the city. When the walkman user leaves his home he instantly plugs into his music and creates a private sphere. This sphere is closed to people around him who can't hear the music and therefore do not understand the gestures or sounds that he makes.
”The transition from one´s home into the public realm represents a special movement in walkman use”
”It is paradoxical that access to public space is associated with the beginning of private listening whereas entering the private realm is associated with openness towards the surroundings.”
Here Thibaud talks about the different ”doors” we pass through during the day. When leaving our home we create a private sphere in which we lower the attention towards the surroundings and focus more on the music. The threshold between public and private is not defined as much by the psysical transition as the transition of perceptual focus.
In our project we are trying to brake into this private bubble of the walkman listener; encouraging him to open up the private sphere by letting the ”rest” of us hear his music. This creates a bridge between the walkmanlistener and us. Now his gestures or sounds are no longer strange to us. They make sense because we hear the same music as him. We invite him into our ”home away from home”. In relation to Thibaud we manipulate the listener to open up his perceptual orientation toward his environment (which he closed down when leaving home and plugging into his walkman).
Thibaud also speaks of the walking patterns of the walkman listener. In his argumentation he uses a concept called the ”stride”.
”The ´stride´ consists in minimizing occasions for stopping and in encouraging continuity to walk. Not saying ´hello´ to an acquaintance on the street, limiting the possibility of speaking to others.”
When we approach the walkman listening passerbys we intrude on their stride. We break of their path by making a detour for them; thereby giving them an opportunity to IDLE. After the interruption of our intrusion the listener once again plugs into his musical bubble and continues his stride.
Michael Bull: No Dead Air! The iPod and the Culture of Mobile Listening
Several of the participants understood our project as an attempt to draw attention to the way in which the urban environment, and our movement in it, is full of music. It is hardly possible to avoid music – or “muzak” – when walking around in the city, and normally you are not able to control what kind of music you listen to. Although this was not the main purpose of our performance, we gave the participants an opportunity to decide for themselves – even though, thus at the same time they of course also decided on behalf on the passers-by. This is in many ways similar to what many users of iPods and MP3 players do by gaining control of their auditory experience of the city, listening to their own music instead.
One of the participants, a man who was about 60 years old and who did by the way not own a mobile music player, was very aware of the way shops etc. use music to tempt especially young costumers. It was his opinion that a lot of contemporary music is extremely addictive and even more damaging than smoking cigarettes. The throbbing rhythms and the exposure of sexuality in the medias and in music videos, he said, make young people “want more and more”, and that is why we can no longer walk on the street without this music in our ears. Like many others he was very bothered by people listening to their music on big head phones which let out only the treble to the surroundings – he even compared this to passive smoking, and in his opinion this kind of head phones should not be allowed in public places.
Michael Bull, however, does not directly rank these two phenomena - the muzak and the iPod use – alongside each other. He agrees that both are a part of the sound-consuming culture; there is music every where. However, in his article, No Dead Air! The iPod and the Culture of Mobile Listening, Bull claims that using a mobile music player with one’s own music on it, is among other things a way of excluding the “muzak” and the noices of the city. Thus “muzak” becomes a part of the noises rather than a part of the aesthetic universe that music in the city might create.
When asked how often they normally were listening to music when they were walking in the city, several of the participants immediately answered, that that was very varying – sometimes very often, some times not at all. However, after thinking about it for a few seconds, many of them changed their answer to: “actually I never go anywhere without listening to music”. Michael Bull is very concerned with the “mobile media sound bubbles” iPod users create around themselves in public space. He calls his article…
…an analysis of the transformation of urban streets into privatised pleasure palaces. The recreation of urban mobile experience through the mediation of technology in the form of both music and the iPod itself points to a re-configuring of our understanding of both the meanings that we might attribute to the urban street and of meanings attributed to the time spent moving through those streets…
Our public living room is to be seen as a visualization of these “pleasure palaces”. Through responses from a research project on the use of iPods Bull describes how iPod users apply the music as a soundtrack to their everyday live. It is a way of aestheticising spaces, of making the city a more beautiful place and of making the surroundings suit the mood of the listener by the means of playing corresponding songs. This is also why we wanted to create an entire, homely living room and not just place a single armchair for the participants to sit in. We wanted to create a cosy environment with coffee and cookies to give the idea of how listening to your own music in public space at the same time enables the listener to maintain a sense of privacy and a sense of being in control. It was also very clear that the music was a very important part of the performance. The living room did look nice without it, but the pleasurable feeling and the idea of hospitality and openness did not really show up until we plugged in the first iPod. Blowing the music into the public definitely blurred the boundaries between the privacy of the intersection couch and the public space.
Michael Bull also writes about how the use of mobile music players gives people walking in the city a feeling of accompaniment even though they might actually be even more isolated than without the music. The Intersection Couch made many of the participants comment on this isolation as being wrong and very anti-social, as they found it more “right” to be orientated towards the surroundings. However, according to Bull mobile music listening might rather fulfil a need, that walking in the city without music is not able to do – a human need for privacy and concentrating on oneself. With new technologies opening windows everywhere to everything at every time it can be hard to find a place to do this – even when you are at home - and this is perhaps what private bubbles in public space give us a chance to do.
The Performance of Intersection Couch
It seemed as if people were divided into to oppinions: slightly scared of the young nutcases (that being us) setting up a living room in front of the train station or simply loving it.
As the guestbook shows, the deeper meaning of the project didn't quite get to all of the participants. Nevertheless - all of them clearly made some kind of reflection of the idea of music-listening in the public as a means of shutting everything and everyone out. As one of the participants said - that could be intentionally! He had clearly given this a thought. As he said: sometimes you're tired of talking to people after a long day. This is a way of shutting the talk out.
Though it didn't seem that the meaning of the project was understood by more of the participants, somehow it got to them though. Many of them clearly enjoyed sharing their music to their friends and the general excitement of an event contributed to a really nice atmosphere.
What the project was all about, on the other hand, really got to older people. We did a mini interview with a few of them as they passed by looking interested but bewildered.
Quotes from Our Guestbook
… and an attempt to translate into English:
Hej! Jeg synes, det er en kanon god idé, projekt. Fordelen, bl.a. at man stresser af, når man sidder ned og får noget at drikke. For mit vedkommende: Var noget stresset, indtil jeg fik øje på projektet; fik en kop kaffe og sad ned og slappede af, samt god musik. Stor tak til de smilende piger. Mvh. Murat (sosu.hj.)
Hi! I think it's a really good idea, project. The advantage is, among others, that you unstress when sitting down and having a drink. In my case: I was a bit stressed until I spotted the project; had a cup of coffee and sat down and relaxed, plus good music. A big thanks to the smiling girls. Sincerely Murat
Det er dejligt med musik på gaden det minder mig om mit sexliv [streget over i teksten, :D], så får man det bedre, man kan tænke på noget frihed.
It lovely with music in the streets it reminds me of my sexlife [overwritten in guestbook :D], then you'll fell better, you can think of freedom
Det er rart at alle kan dele deres musik, så kommer der lidt mere liv i gaden:) Lea
It is nice that everyone can share their music, that puts life into the streets :) Lea
Jeg synes det er en sjov undersøgelse i har gang i og jeg mener at man lukker ting ude når man hører musik.
I think it's a funny examination you're up to and I think you shut out stuff when you're listening to music
På gaden - nu med musik… interessant projekt - hvad hører danskerne egentlig? - ABBA, Sigur Rós eller Sussi & Leo? Det bedste er at få udfordret sine fordomme og sin generthed. Der værste er at… Næ, der er ikke noget "værste"… :) —> Oplagt festugeprojekt - kør endelig på!
In the streets - now with music… Interesting project - what do the danes listen to? - ABBA, Sigur Rós or Sussi & Leo? It's the best to have your prejudices and shyness challenged. The worst is… No, there is no "worst"… :) —> An ovbvious Festweek project - go on with it!
Buongiorno. Oh it's such a nice experience to sit in front of the train station and listening music, I should do that more often… [and then some in spanish I can't figure out]. Rafaelle
Hey Folkens. Super cool koncept, spred det gode budskab & musik. Ned med mainstream, op med den individuelle smag. Hold det gode humør oppe, er sikker på I får "bestået". Good luck. Ejner.
Hey people. Super cool concept, spread the word & music. Down with mainstream, in with the individual taste. Keep up the good spirit, I'm sure you "pass". Good luck. Ejner
Photos and Videos
Mini interviews with people in the street
Older lady passing by:
This lady was stopping to have a look at our "action". Looking clearly curious we approached her and asked what she thought of it all. She asked what it was about and we explained that we we're trying to bring attention to the way we act with our music-players in public space. Cleverly she then asked if we seriously wanted people to play out loud instead of just listening for themselves. The horror of the thought of dozens of youngsters listening loudly to their music and thereby disturbing everyone near them. We argued that that's of course not what we want, we just wanted to show how music influences the public space as a one-person thing. After a bit of talking back and forth we agreed that an opening of the privacy in public space is a good idea.
Older man passing by:
The situation was similar to the one explained above. This man too was very positive about the idea of music free public space, because he liked to have the possibility of approaching people in the streets if needed, not having to be concerned if they were listening or if they even cared about anyone but themselves. To him it meant a lot that when leaving your home and engaging with public life you should be open towards the people using the same public places.
Considerations afterwards
The Intersection Couch turned out to be a fairly social project. Not excluding those without MP3-players, because we invited basically everyone to sit down and enjoy the cosy atmosphere. The thought being that though not everyone had an iPod most people had an opinion about music and everybody is acting in public space.
People were more interested in the background and the concept of the project than we expected. It would have been nice to have a more clear concept and maybe some handouts about the project. If the project is just presented as a funny happening we risk that that project is meaningless - that is if people don't reflect on the topic afterwards.
If we we're to do it again it would be nice to have something more concrete: some sort of handout with the outlines of the project explained and a web-address so people could give the project a thought and then later on using an interactive guestbook.
Feedback from Johanne and Lone
You should probably reflect on whether your project promotes privacy in public, or whether it actually aims to make something private public – we would think that by using speakers the ‘private’ music collection is blown into the public space. Maybe you could come up with an alteration of the project, which would stage the privacy of the music/the listener in some way? Could people for example swop music when they’re sitting down, so that they listen privately to somebody else’s music, or could they just sit down in a relaxed space to really enjoy their own music?
Nevertheless, it is an interesting project. You should consider how you present the project to the passer-by’s. Do you tell them what it is about, how do you get people to sit down, how do you even make people with headphones (who are the ones you want to attract) aware of what is going on? And are people without headphones not allowed to sit down? These reflections could all refine your concept.
