prompt 4.4 ~ inquiry

There were 5 key themes that I pulled from the workshops:

• Room Construction

• Attention Economy

• Visuals

• Individual vs. Collective Listening

• Music Curation

I will spend the first part of this post talking about the insights I pulled from these themes and then end with higher-level thoughts I have about the experience as well as steps for the future.

Room Construction

Lighting

Emerged as a crucial element capable of setting the mood, influencing energy levels, and fostering comfort. It wielded the power to sculpt the ambiance and elevate the overall atmosphere, playing a pivotal role in the emotional resonance of the space. For workshop 4, I used different light levels than the first 3 workshops. During workshop 4’s debrief, there were a few comments about the lighting adjusting the lights. When we tried a lower light level it instantly added more comfort and ease to the space.

Fabrics

Played a multifaceted role, softening harsh elements while adding texture and warmth to the room. Throughout the week I added fabric elements; table cloths, blankets and pillows, which although subtle, enhanced participants' sense of ease and relaxation.

Care

A really interesting point that came out of the discussions was about how your perception of how much a place seems like it is cared for affects your experience and how much you care for a space. When there are certain elements in the room that make it seem that a lot of love and intention went into crafting a space, as a participant you feel more connected to the space. You see this in churches and cathedrals that have stained glass and bespoke carved elements but I also recognized this at a college bar I used to go to during my undergrad. The bar was called Barneys and in the bathroom, they had these small frames of what looked like found images of relatively important to very important people. This small quirk made me feel that the owner cared enough about his place that he would also spend time decorating the bathroom with interesting characters.

Ritual/Ceremony

Were discussed as a means to transform the act of entering a room, creating a transition from the outside world to a unique, immersive experience within. Considerations around the impact of entry could be subtle or bold, whatever makes entering the space more of a “thing”. Inspiration could be taken from cathedrals, restaurants, concert venues and retreats.

Positioning

The positioning of elements and individuals within the room surfaced as a pivotal factor influencing the listening experience. The placement of myself (facilitator)—communicated differently when I sat at the front versus alongside participants—to the arrangement of seating and other furniture, each placement dictates a different dynamic within the space.

Notably, the placement of the DJ within the room carried substantial critique and conversation during the debrief. I positioned the DJ booth horizontally to where the participants were, with my back half turned away. I initially thought a move like this would be true to the Japanese listening bars in that they actively attempt to downplay the DJ and put more focus on the music. However, the participants felt weird not knowing if I was part of the conversation or not. Some of the ideas that came out of the debrief suggested ways to put the DJ more within the crowd while some still preferred the DJ to be up where they usually are. Either way, this is good information in that the positioning of the DJ is another important material to consider.

Reflecting on a comment my classmate Deechen made about her experience at a vinyl listening party she attended has made me think about the positioning of the audio source as a material to consider. I am starting to view the audio source as a sculptural element. The visibility of the speakers (visible or not), what they look like, the direction of the sound and how people are positioned in relation to the audio source are all very important materials to consider within the realm of the experience I want to give people.

Attention Economy

Active

Most people said they are ‘active’ while listening to something. From the feedback from my participants, listening solely to an album without doing anything else seems to be an older practice. Some of the activities people engage in while listening to music are taking walks, driving, cooking and while in transit ( bus rides, trains, planes). A lot of the participants were restless at the start of the experience and felt that they should be doing something else while listening to the music. However, a couple of the participants described the experience as a meditation and the act of coming back to the music was a valuable thing to practice.

Phones

People didn’t know whether they could use their phones during the experience. I didn’t want to prescribe any rules for these sessions because I wanted to see how things would unfold. In some ways, using your phone aided the listening experience because people were able to find information about something the album reminded them of and share it with others in the moment. At the same time, the continuous listening was disrupted which I argue is inherently valuable. The question then lies in how much is gained vs. how much is lost. How much does it detract vs. enhance? Another question to consider is what makes a “quality” listening experience. Can I test/prove the effects of using your phone while listening?

I am conflicted about where I should stand on this issue. One of the participants told me a story of how she likes going to the opera as it forces her to not be on her phone and gets her to slow down. In some ways forcing people to do something can reap positive outcomes. A concept I have noticed which has been positive in my life is ‘forced interactions’. I have come to realize in a lot of situations when I was forced to interact with people, I felt I gained something more than if I were left to my own devices and didn’t interact. For example, at a previous company I was working for, as part of my onboarding, I had to schedule 1 on 1s with senior members of my team and throughout the organization. Before all these meetings I was nervous and slightly reluctant. I was the newly hired intern and I felt a little intimidated. However, without fail, after every meeting I left feeling more confident about my place on the team and more comfortable with everyone else. Likewise, for these listening spaces, I could take a stand and not allow phones because I am creating the chance for people to stop the outside noise and slow down. It could also be more of a modular decision and decide session-to-session.

Directed Growth

This sub-point relates to the matter of phone usage and how and how much I want to police/govern the space. Some of the questions surrounded phone usage, whether they can write or draw, if talking is allowed and what type of music should be expected to be heard. An analogy I want to use for this space is the bonsai tree/zen garden. I want to be open to feedback and malleable with the conduct of the space, however, like you see from the tree above, I would also actively direct the growth of the space and design it to afford a certain type of being. For example, if I have writing and colouring supplies laid around the room, this would naturally encourage people to feel empowered to write. However, if I make it so the tables are to small to use as a writing surface, this would afford a different behaviour.

Visuals

Drishti

Having an object to look at provides a gazing point and can help fight the initial awkwardness of sitting silently in a room. For these sessions, I used a slow oscillating colored light, a visualizer from the album and a salt lamp An insightful comment someone made was the idea of how you go about easing people’s minds/giving them a sense of calm in a short period. The listening sessions were only 75 minutes and for some people it may typically take them that long to get comfortable anywhere. The participants noted that her behavioural psychologist friend suggested low-stimulation visuals (slow-moving changes) help achieve calm in a short period of time. For future iterations, I would want to take an ethnomethodological approach and experiment with what if there was no visual or if the room was pitch black.

Context

Almost every participant recognized that the visual gave more context to the album. It added narrative and showcased the visual world of the music. In a lot of cases (me included) the visual increased my appreciation of the work. I recognize in our current zeitgeist we don’t get that as much and intentionally wanted to utilize the space to showcase more of the artist’s work.

Another thing that increased people’s appreciation of the work was reading the Exclaim interview of Sampha. The question for me then lies in how much context I want to provide people beforehand. The approach I am leaning towards is giving people interviews of the artist, biographical information, previous music of theirs, and similar artists to them. Where I stand is to avoid giving people anything that gives too much of an opinion. I also see this act of providing the right kind of biographical information on an artist or band before listening as an expanded role of the music curator.

Providing physical tracklists was helpful as it allowed people to reference what was happening during the listening and the debrief. I can see this as an opportunity for artists to make album-specific tracklist art pieces as an extension of the music, no different than the album cover or posters. One thing I would do differently about the tracklists is to not print so many (or none at all and use a digital tracklist that everyone in the room can see). The ones I printed were already big enough for two people to share and making people share could increase the sociability of the space. Another question for me to ponder is what is sociability?

Individual vs. Collective Listening

Enrichment

People felt that the collective listening was powerful and that it enriched their experience, you can share emotions in the moment while in the same space. When listening in a group people pick up things you may have missed or validate what you are hearing. There was also the sentiment that it’s not a binary of collective listening being better than listening individually but that environments like these enable a conviviality to happen in ways that people don’t currently experience in their individual listening practices.

One of the participants mentioned she doesn’t think she would appreciate the album as much if she heard it in passing or while active. A listening space created a meaningful moment for her and the music. I realized then, that even in collective listening spaces, it’s not necessarily the collective that is the primary pulling factor but that you can have dedicated time to listen to music in a specific setting and space.

The People

When it comes to listening collectively, the people who make up the space are an important material to consider. Further research could go into working with small pods vs. a larger group as well as playing with the familiarity and relationality of the people in the space.

One of the participants noted that part of their individual listening practices is sharing music with friends. In a way, it makes sense that when people are collectively listening to music there is also I need to want to share with the people around you, be it information or emotions.

HI-FI Economics

A perk of collective that was echoed among participants was having access to hi-fi audio. Even with the advent of technologies that give the layperson access to high-quality audio, a collective listening environment, for most will be better than what they can afford individually.

Sensorial Engagement
One of the participants noted that they would rather go to a bar with live music (rather than album listening) because of the heightened sensorial engagement; eating, seeing, hearing, and socializing. However, another participant challenged that point and felt that an album listening was a more intimate listening experience because, in a live setting, you are hearing live versions of music and musicians are using crowd work to spiff up what they are playing. In some ways, a listening room is the closest thing you would get to hearing how the artist intended it to be heard. Ultimately, I want to position this space differently than a bar and I am okay with there being people who would rather attend another type of outing. More and more I am realizing there would be certain types of people who would enjoy this kind of experience more than others. At the same time, I still realize that for this listening space to work here, it needs to be conscious of the environment and social milieu.

Music Curation

Considering that I am creating listening spaces, music curation was a large talking point for the participants. Overall people were engaged and appreciated the album selection from the first three workshops while there were mixed reviews about the music played during the listening bar.

Listening Bar

A key point of contention was how much should the vibe be read, brought or set. Traditionally, in Japanese listening bars, it seemed that the owner/venue would dictate the music and the people who attend these places are going for a deep listening and music discovery experience. However, in discussion after workshop 4, some people vocalized wanting music that was more '‘familiar” and that ebbed and flowed more in reaction to the crowd energy, while others enjoyed not knowing what was being played. For the most part, these are common practices and considerations to the DJ however, to me, deeper to the issue is what does it mean for music to be ‘familar’. In a world that is increasingly divided in the way our algorithms give us hyper-personalized content, everyone's reference points are different. Through this experience, I am forming a greater appreciation of music’s ability to bring people together as well as to alienate. Going forward for this space to be successful, particularly in North America, I will need to think more critically about the spectrum of familiarity and discovery and how best to balance, at times opposing forces. One way I see forward is setting themes so people can know what to expect from the sessions.

Album Listening Room

One insightful point that was reflected to me is the thought that the person who selects an album has reasons or intentions that they want to impart to the listeners. It excites me that people recognize this power that the music selection has because core to the idea of the album listening is getting people to dialogue around the music. In book club fashion, I can imagine doing album listening series that are themed. For example, a 4-week series could have the theme of femininity and each week an album is selected that focuses on this topic. The hope is that the music can spur dialogue and get people talking about socio-cultural-economic-political issues on top of also hearing amazing music.

High-level Thoughts

From the valuable experiences from facilitating these 4 workshops and all the work I have done throughout this semester, I am realizing that I am most interested in creating a space that is a community center and a place for people to gather. I see these listening spaces as a way to get there. A lot of my previous work looked at the lineage of recording formats and how I prophesized a return to a physical format. I consider this at the time but a physical format could take shape as an experience rather than an object. A big motivation for this work has been learning about the history of the Walkman. In one of the interviews with a Sony Employee who worked on the Walkman, he talked about creating a new culture of listening. Likewise, these spaces are also creating a new listening culture. In Sony’s case they needed to show people through marketing how and why to use the product, similarity I may need to show people why they should come and how they can socialize in this space.

Another point of inspiration and model I can learn from for these listening spaces is Braindead Studios. Braindead is a company based in Los Angeles that has a multi-functional space that operates as a movie theater, wrestling ring, cafe and store. Each month they have certain themes that dictate their programming. For my spaces, I can use the idea of theming as a way to set people’s expectations.

One thing I am keen to do with this space is combine it with food and art. I have had a lot of in-depth and enthusiastic conversations with friends about how food, music and art are primordial and essential parts of human culture and that it would be amazing to make spaces that bring these together in a coherent way. Unbeknownst to me, I think these listening spaces are creating the possibility to do just that. For the scope of my research and immediate interests, I don’t necessarily feel the need to own those parts of the equation (in the sense of me running a kitchen) and I would love to be able to work with other foodies and artists to collaborate on these equally important parts of the experience.

Lastly, the point that will stick with me the most from these workshops is the question, what do I want people to take away from the experience? Although I had a vague idea of this, by bringing it center stage, I believe it will be the north star of all my design decisions going forward.