Earworm Assault Devices
Friday, April 16, 2010 at 18:16
Although I consider myself a pacifist, these Earworm Assault Devices are quite funny and (well, moderately) harmless. We probably all know the experience of having a song in our mind that just does not want to leave and keeps repeating compulsively. That is what we call an earworm.
While most of these earworms arise naturally in our mind, a few years ago the German interface designers from Fur came up with the Earworm Assault Devices. Small weapon-like machines constructed with the sole purpose to plant unwanted song phrases in a victim’s mind. They record samples up to 12 seconds and ‘shoot’ them at your ears repeatedly.
These earworms, if chosen carefully, can stay in your head for a long time. You just have to sing that song, or whistle, over and over again. I heard there is only one way to get rid of such an earworm. Sing the song all the way through, until you reach the end, and after the last notes it will be gone. I never tried this method myself though.
Via Richard van Tol
Reader Comments (2)
Another supposed cure for earworms is to sing God Save The Queen (our British national anthem, not the Sex Pistols version), a tune so dull and catchless that it causes your auditory cortex to go into standby.
Now how do you compose an earworm? That's the big unanswered question.
Haha that seems like another perfect solution, Hugh! Have you tried it?
Concerning your second point: I have no idea, although I think I did compose one or two :)