Now hear this: Elevator ambiance with some substance
Please note: This article is published as an archive copy from Philadelphia City Paper. My City Paper is not affiliated with Philadelphia City Paper. Philadelphia City Paper was an alternative weekly newspaper in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The last edition was published on October 8, 2015.
We like Yanni and all, but...
From "Really Good Elevator Music"
How do you perceive elevators?
They’re mundane, utilitarian pieces of machinery, sure, but they can be many things: A place of forced social interaction. A place to awkwardly ignore interaction with someone a foot away from you. A simple transportation tool. A place to panic because you’re claustrophobic. (Did you know there is no scientific term for the elevator phobia?)
For one man in the Wolf Building, Yowei Shaw discovered, it’s a valued space of Zen.
“Am I supposed to be subjected to this through the end of March? I see the elevator as a moment of peace and quiet,” he wrote Shaw after being unknowingly part of her experimental art installation, “Really Good Elevator Music.”
“I think it’s super interesting to hear his take on an elevator and what that means to him,” Shaw said on the phone Wednesday. “That’s his right to silence.”
“Really Good Elevator Music” has been pumping through the elevators of the Wolf Building, 340 N. 12th St., since March 3. Shaw, an artist-in-residence at Asian Arts Initiative needed to create a project for the initiative. At first, she thought to create a cell phone tour — she works in public radio and is an audio producer — but thought better of it.
“I wouldn’t recommend to any friends to just have their head buried in a phone or headphones, walking around Philly,” she said with a laugh. “Plus [for that], you need to have a smart phone, you have to have an app…it’s a high barrier to entry.”
She got to thinking of where people are captive audiences, like it or not. Elevators seemed a natural fit. Muzak, or the background noise melodies we’re subjected to in elevators and waiting rooms, Shaw said, has been a semi-sinister (depending on how you look at it, we suppose) manipulating tool since the 30s. Studies show that Muzak can influence group behavior, boost worker productivity and make shoppers linger in stores longer.
"We designed [‘Really Good Elevator Music’] with a community building goal in mind…we’re not trying to make music that you necessarily like or that is ‘good,’ but music that achieves a goal,” Shaw said.
Here, the goal is vague, she admits: promoting community in the Chinatown neighborhood.
“It’s really up to each of the artists who made tracks for the playlists to have their own approach and strategy,” she said.
Six artists besides Shaw made tracks for the looping playlist — Jeff Zeigler, Steve Parker, Alex Lewis, Kyle Pulley, Aleks Martray and Steven Dufala. Some tracks are more like the Muzak you know, some are discordant, some are filled with human voices. One includes recordings of Shaw asking people at the Sunday Breakfast Rescue Mission what their favorite food is. Another features Philly eighth-graders cracking up while trying to practice a Miley Cyrus song.
“I’m not a musician, so this was terrifying to me,” Shaw said. A musician, no, but she is a bit of a spy — she’s been riding the elevators “undercover” to get people’s reactions.
“Some people really love it, some people love the idea and the concept, other people don’t like the music but they’re on board with the concept…someone turned to me and said, ‘This is way too loud, when is this going to be over?’” Shaw said. “You can bond over your dislike. I’m just trying to intervene in the routine of everyday life and get people to think differently about their usage of these not-active spaces in their life, even if they want to ‘guard’ it.”
Another part of the project is community outreach — Shaw and her collaborators are inviting other folks in the city to experiment with the playlist in their own spaces. Union Transfer has signed on to loop the tracks before artists take the stage, as have a couple other locales.
On Friday, March 14, Shaw and her crew will present a listening party at Asian Arts Initiative from 6 to 8 p.m., and will share tracks, reaction videos and other information.
To hear the music and learn more, check out http://reallygoodelevatormusic.com/.
Here's a video about the project:
