Ambient’s not dead!

Do you usually eat your meals at TiU campus? And, while sitting at the Restaurant building, have you ever noticed whether or not there is music in the background? Have you ever tried the sauna in the Olympia building? What about there? Do they play background music? It’s easy to describe what a familiar place looks like, but you might have a hard time recollecting how it sounds! Yet, noises, sounds, and silence are all around: they fill the places that we share with strangers and they might influence the way in which we attune to each other.

This post is about sharing non-places.

‘AMBIENT’S NOT DEAD!’

I usually eat my meals at TiU campus and, most of the time, I visit the Restaurant building with a loyal pandilla of colleagues. Struggling to find a table (big enough to fit us all) is part of our daily routine. We know it: the closer the exam period, the harder the battle! At 12.30, the canteen is always crowded: a clatter of cups and cutlery reigns over human voices. A few weeks ago, my colleagues and I were engaging in one of our endless conversations when, suddenly, one of us got distracted by a noise … there was background music in the lunchroom!

Was this an extraordinary occurrence? Or do they stream music in the canteen every day and we had never paid attention to it before? We started to debate on the issue but none of us was 100% sure about the right answer. The volume of the background music was so low that we kept on talking without paying attention to it: we switched to several conversation topics and by the time we walked out of the canteen, music no longer mattered for us.

On the same day, I booked a sauna section at the Olympia building. As soon as I walked into the steam room, my ears and my brain immediately tuned into the soft melody played in the background. I do not have doubts about this: the sauna is one of those places where I am completely aware of the soundscape around me! But what makes me mindful of background music in a sauna, and what makes me insensitive to it in the canteen?

I do not have scientific answers to these questions. But I guess that there is a link between what I call my ‘audio-awareness’ and the fact that I was alone among strangers in the steam room, while I was chatting with my friends in the canteen. In both cases there were music and people around me. However, the weight of the two elements, in the two different scenarios, was entirely different.

In the canteen, I was part of a group that was doing something together. I was not just sitting close to my colleagues: we all wanted to be there, digging in our lunch boxes while arguing about random stuff. We had chosen to spend some time together. That was not the case in the steam room. I wanted to take some time off and I planned to go to the sauna alone. Other people were not really part of the plan: unknown individuals in towels were just an unavoidable side effect of my decision. In the latter case, the background music was one of the few things that my unchosen sauna-mates and I had in common.

I must admit that the Muzak in the sauna was not exactly a collection of masterpieces. But, at least, it was functional to attune myself to the presence of others. I lied down on the wooden benches, I closed my eyes and I start wondering about the other people with whom I was sharing the room: ‘Do they think, like me, that this track sucks?’ I thought that maybe, should we have the chance to express our preferences, we would be able to come to an agreement about sauna soundtracks that would make everyone happier. But I also considered the opposite outcome: maybe an overlapping consensus about music was not an option. Then I experienced a deep relief in listening to the inane Muzak that was pumped into the steam room: after all, it was lighter than silence!

Saunas, canteens, shopping malls, elevators, doctor’s waiting rooms, metros, train platforms, airports: these are all places that we cannot but share with strangers. Most of us are probably familiar with researches or urban myths about how music played in shops, restaurants and other public places can affect people’s behaviour, causing customers to shop more, workers to work harder, and susceptible hearers to leave.

Usually I do not give too much thought to the matter, but the canteen episode and the sauna one had somewhat triggered my attention. But do you know what was the cherry on top? Some days ago, I was travelling home for Christmas and I was queuing up alone at security checks. I was reading a column about the recent Berlin attack and I stumbled upon the sentence ‘Terrorism weaponizes public spaces’. I felt uncomfortable as I read the verb ‘weaponizes’, so I read it twice. I looked at the space around me: it was packed with strangers. I felt lonely. I noticed that most of my neighbours were wearing headphones. I felt even lonelier. I wished there was at least some background music between us … there was none.

Suggested audio tour:Interview:

Album:

_Advertentie.