MUSIC & TIME: ENHANCING THE MUSIC LISTENING EXPERIENCE THROUGH INTERACTION

2018. 30 Million songs are accessible within seconds on our phones. From Live Music, to Records, MP3s and streaming. How has our behaviour when listening to music changed? Four listening concepts are presented, all of which attempt to create a deeper listening awareness through targeted interaction.
The idea is to let the listener reflect on their own listening behaviour, to spark food for thought and to provide a deeper understanding of the essential things in a fast-moving world, without turning their backs on it.

Awarded at University of Applied Science Berlin
Official Selection Dutch Design Week Eindhoven 2019

RESEARCH TOPICS

• Speculative Design on the Future of Music listening
• Interaction, Communication & Industrial Design

Team

Basil Boyacos
Gregor Jahner
Marius Bergmann
Michael Brummer

Our research showed us that the best time we can spend is when we have no sense of time. The time when we forget ourselves. Everyone has their own personal activities in which they can lose themselves completely. For many people it is listening to music. For most people this experience has changed with streaming.

As listeners, we have the opportunity to record and enjoy what is being played. With live music, however, what has been played expires permanently after it has subsided and there is no way to relive the moment. Only by recording can the special moment of listening to a song be re-experienced. With the help of an internet connection and a smart player, we can now access 30 million songs via streaming platforms. This is an enormous technological advance compared to a record, a CD or an MP3. The special moment, which was still very rare when experiencing live music, has thus become an experience that can be called up at any time.
Our behavior towards listening to music has thus changed. Music as background music has a clear right to exist today. Desired moods can be called up at any time in the form of playlists, and the music tailored to our needs makes our research easier. If we don’t like a song, we just listen to the next one. How we deal with it depends on us, since we freely determine our listening behavior. are we still listening

Poster campaign for the four listening concepts that were developed: “Create, Maintain, Observe & Purify”.

This project found inspiration in intuitive drawing or drawing without thinking. Like many artists the creator falls into a place of pure creation. We applied this idea to a simple interface with an attached screen. The listener had to “draw what they hear”. Through creation and free from judgment a more intense listening experience is created .

The simple task was to visualise the song. Without rules we drop the judgement and lose the sense of time.

The listener puts the a metal ball into the funnel and a song starts playing. For the duration of the song the ball wanders back slowly.

Observe is a fully functional music player. It rotates the funnel around its own axis while playing music. On the inside of the funnel a small metal ball moves down a helical track that is embedded in the funnel. For the duration of one song the ball wanders all the way up into the funnel until it drops down and rolls back to the starting point. To start the viewer must actively put the ball into the provided opening. The concept reminds of a vinyl player. When the act of putting on a song and observing the ball wander into the unknown the listening experience becomes more special and engaging.

Is there a way to combine the powers of streaming with the deepened experience of vinyl players?

The concept reminds of a vinyl player. When the act of putting on a song and observing the ball wander into the unknown the listening experience becomes more special and engaging.

Purify is an interactive audio player. A song is divided into 48 parts giving full control over every element of the song through the 48 knobs.

Questioning traditional hierarchies between creator and listener purify aims to give the listener full control over the song that is played. With 48 knobs one is able to change highs, lows and things that we did not even hear before.

Can the future of music listening include custom adjustments/ remixing?

The listener has to shovel sand into the funnel in order to keep the song going.

Are we taking the availability of music for granted? Maintain makes us work for our music. The listener has to shovel sand into a funnel to keep the engine running. After a while task becomes repetitive and frustrating. But it makes us wonder what older generations would have thought of streaming music.

If we have to work or pay extra for a service we usually take it more serious and end up more happy. Can we combine total availability with obstacles to enhance experiences?