Among the many sonic events that occur along any given trajectory of the distributed sound system, it is primarily the romantic song that, when spatialized, causes a disruption of program. What makes the love song a different entity from other sound sources heard in public space is twofold – that it reproduces the voice of a singer, and that this new voice seeks to produce an idiosyncratic emotional effect.
The love song comes with it’s own intentionality that breaks from the program by its individual nature, its autonomy and uniqueness. Whereas the aims of programmatic music systems are the creation of atmosphere and the promise of a stable and enduring mood, the employment of love songs to accomplish this task sets up the conditions for its own disruption. In order to observe this special form of disruption there we must find in combination, a pre-determined playlist of programmed music and a space to be treated…
© 2019 Douglas Moffat