Classic: One Apartment and Six Drummers

Today we will watch a classic many of you will have seen before, but as it was made long before Everyday Listening was born, and I really like this to be part of my archives, here we go once again. Music for One Apartment and Six Drummers (2001) shows us a surreal situation in which six musicians ‘play’ the apartment of an unsuspecting couple while they walk their dog. 

I still love watching these smartly dressed drummers leave their Volvo for a well-planned guerilla performance. It is a wonderful and inspiring idea. The whole world can be our instrument, all we need is great musicians to play it!

Urban Devas

On your work from home to work you are suddenly surprised by a “roving chorus of 10 women dressed in high visibility clothing and carrying megaphones”, singing strange songs and moving around the unsuspecting passers-by. 

That is what happens when you encounter Urban Devas, a project by New Zealand’s sonic artist Phil Dadson in collaboration with choreographer Carol Brown. This guerilla performance was created for Living Room 2010 - “A Week of Goodness”, in Auckland. I would love to be surprised by their voices. 

Let these Little Helpers surprise you

I love the way Little Helpers surprises passers-by with its tiny rattling noise. This project, created by Will Schrimshaw consists of small pieces of electronics attached to a fence, a railing or a lamp post. Motion sensors track if a person is approaching and start little motors which start banging the object it’s attached to.

It’s interesting to see how some people just ignore it, or don’t seem to notice it at all, while it scares others. Because the Little Helpers are autonomous they react on movement and are not connected to anything, it almost seems like they’re alive. It would definitely put a smile on my face if I would be surprised by one of those things on my way. And maybe that’s reason enough to create a project like this.

Little Helpers is one of the projects featured at the Futuresonic festival.

Fight against sound pollution: dance!

There's a lot of sound surrounding us. A busy city is not a quiet place. Cars and trucks produce sound, people produce sound, but some of it is really just pollution. Motor scooters with annoyingly loud exhausts, kids on the train listening to urban beats from the thin sounding speakers of their mobile phones, it's a pathetic sight.

What can you do about it? Well, accept it if you want to survive everyday city life, or dance your feet off like this man does. A subtle and fun way to express your discomfort, isn't it?