REX YU/ THESIS PROPOSAL / FALL 2013 THE SERENDIPITY OF EXPERIENCING MUSIC

REX YU/ THESIS PROPOSAL / FALL 2013 THE SERENDIPITY OF EXPERIENCING MUSIC

serendipity ˌserənˈdipitē noun The action of making happy discoveries, by accidents and sagacity, of some thing not initially in quest of.

Table of Contents MUSIC, INDUSTRIAL DESIGN, AND ME A Music Aficionado A Sad Evolution An Industrial Designer A Contribution WELCOME TO THE DIGITAL MUSIC WORLD PressPausePlay The New Age of Music Digital vs. Physical A Private and Personal World An Active Listener? A Passive Listener? Slow Listening Conclusion SHARING IS HUMAN Chad Hurley in San Francisco What Is Sharing? Current Situation Krish/Drummer The Culture of Boomboxes Gee Dad, It s a Wurlitzer Where Is the Sharing Place? Condition Statement Redefine Music Curation It s All about Sharing Your Music Tastes DJ Eel/Buggy Conclusion 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20 22 24 26 27 28 30 32 33 35 36 38 40 42 44 45 46 47 RECREATING THE NEW GENERATION OF MUSIC RETAIL STORE The Music Retail Store Is Dying The Old Still Lives On New Generation MAKING PUBLIC SPACE BECOME A PLACE FOR SHARING The Decline of Boombox Culture Silent Frisco Public Space FEELING DIFFERENT SENSES IN MUSIC CODAME 2013 ART+TECH Festival Music Curation Needs More Than an Ear Hypothesis Conclusion BIOGRAPHY AND PORTFOLIO Rex Yu WeShare Mission Workshop Arkiv C6 Field Pack Embrace Bibliography 48 50 52 54 56 58 60 62 64 66 68 70 72 74 76 78 86 94 98 2 3

MUSIC, INDUSTRIAL DESIGN, AND ME

A Music Aficionado I am a music lover. I like to collect CDs, wear album cover t-shirts and follow the news about my favorite artists; I even care about the whole music industry. When people around me download free music, I am really proud to show off all the MP3 files in my itunes that I transferred from CDs I bought. 6 7

A Sad Evolution After witnessing the musical evolution from vinyl to cassette to CD to MP3, I feel like music is changing too fast for me to keep up. I used to buy CDs, but now CD drives have been taken out of most computers, making it impossible to transfer my CDs to MP3 files. I used to buy music in physical music retail stores, but now it is hard to find them anywhere. Everything changed in a short period of time. 8 9

An Industrial Designer As an industrial designer, I really enjoy designing products, especially audio products, and I ve always dreamed of a career as an electronics product designer. I don t want to limit myself to just one field, but I really want to combine audio design with my job. 10 11

A Contribution I look forward to enhancing the way people experience music. What can I do for the music industry? How can I broaden people s behaviors of listening to music? As a music aficionado, an album collector, and an active music listener, I want to help make a better world while addressing my dissatisfaction with the evolution of music. Do you still remember the time in 2001 when Apple introduced the ipod and itunes? 12 13

WELCOME TO THE DIGITAL MUSIC WORLD

PressPausePlay What is the digital world we live in now? Is it full of hope, or fear? This film talked about the pros and cons of digital culture. The accessibility of technology has allowed anyone to become an artist, a novelist, or a musician, and a video on YouTube with millions of views might be forgotten in just a few years. On the other hand, some might argue that more and more competitors means better works of art. The film didn t conclude that the digital world is good or bad, but it did say we should value physical things, like live performances, more, where we can experience human interaction between the artists, audience, and music. This changes everything. The industry is dead. There has never been a better time to be an artist. - Seth Godin 16 17

The New Age of Music Thanks to technology, we have come to a new digital world of experiencing music. The enhancement of mobility lets us listen to music everywhere, and we can access huge amounts of music on our tiny mobile devices thanks to the Cloud. We have new music social experiences thanks to the Internet; it s much easier for us to purchase or download music, and artists can create different platforms to communicate with fans. 18 19

Digital vs. Physical How do you purchase music? How do you interact with music? Undoubtedly, most people would say through digital media. In fact, physical sales of music are decreasing rapidly; sales of digital music overtook physical music in the US for the first time in 2012. 20 21

A Private and Personal World When walking on the street, all we see are people wearing headphones and ear buds. There is no denying that listening to music has become a more solitary experience. Most people listen to music this way because they don t want to disturb other people or just want to enjoy their personal time; in a way, headphones and ear buds provide cocoons for people in public. Is technology giving us new ways of listening, or just limiting us to an anti-social world? 22 23

A Passive Listener? An Active Listener? How do you listen to music? Many people nowadays only listen to music while doing other things. It has become a background sound for people to listen to passively. It is much different from past times when people picked up one of their favorite LPs, put it on a turntable, and listened to it carefully without doing other things. Obviously the way we consume music has changed with the advent of the ipod and smart phones, but I don t feel we are actually listening to music. It s become a way to pass time on a train/bus/plane journey. Apparently the average person has 550 songs in their itunes, of which they only play 20%. It s become standard to listen to music whilst doing something else. - James Thirkettle MP3s? They may be the most convenient medium so far, but I can t help thinking that the psychoacoustic trickery used to develop them the ability to cause the mind to think and feel that all the musical information is there when in reality a huge percentage has been removed is a continuation of this trend in which we are seduced by convenience. - David Byrne With vinyl we listen more carefully, we pick up nuances we hadn t previously noticed, and our greater attention yields greater reward. Slow listening allows us the space to renegotiate the relationship between our physical and digital selves. - Fort Romeau 24 25

Slow Listening In order to make people focus on the music itself, some people advocate slow listening, which is similar to other slow movements. They suggest that people spend time really listening to music so they can appreciate its beauty. Conclusion We all know what benefits digital music has brought us, but we may not know what we have lost because of it. I am not trying to force people to become active listeners or to get rid of technology. I am here to offer a variety of ways to experience music it would be boring if I designed a product to just make people listen to music without doing other things or to try to revert to old ways of listening. Listen Carefully is a sensitive headphone that reminds the user to focus and concentrate while listening to music. The headphone lowers the playback volume on juddering movements, thus "forcing" the user to sit still and relax. - http://slowlistening.com 26 27

SHARING IS share SHe(ə)r noun A part or portion of a larger amount that is divided among a number of people, or to which a number of people contribute. HUMAN

Chad Hurley In San Francisco Chad Hurley is the co-founder and former CEO of YouTube. I went to his speech in October 2013 in which he said that the success of YouTube is based on the human need to share. People upload videos because they want to express their feelings. When people relate emotionally they comfort each other. Too much of social media is isolating and selfish. Users are just sharing content for themselves. - Chad Hurley Chad Hurley is currently working on a new app called MixBit that allows people to capture short spurts of video and put them together to make a video that is created by many people. Video brings them together. 30 31

What Is Sharing? In this case I am not talking about file sharing, but sharing between humans. On some level, everyone wants to be accepted by other people. So they show their emotions. They tell their stories. They express their values. Current Situation I conducted a survey to find out what people think about sharing music. I interviewed 50 people and got 202 results from an online survey. To my surprise, I found that 86% of the respondents like to share their musical tastes with other people, and 81% share music only through digital media like Facebook, Twitter, or YouTube. 32 33

Actually, they do have bad experiences when sharing music digitally... Krish/Drummer Krish is the drummer of Lie Gramophone (a indie electronic band in Taiwan). He likes to share their music and news on their Facebook fan page, but he s happiest during their live performances. The most exciting thing for him is that he controls the audience s emotions via his drumbeat. That s what digital music can t take over. Imagine that you post a music link on your Facebook profile. What you get back is nothing more than just a few thumbs up. You don t know if people have even seen your post before clicking the like button. 34 35

The Culture of Boomboxes Remember when you d see a guy carrying a boombox down the street, playing his music loudly? He was occupying other people s space and expressing himself and his musical tastes. Even if not all the people near him liked his music, it did show that people had interest in sharing music in public. In a strange way the boombox was almost like the first Internet. It was like a Spotify area where you could exchange not only ideas and information but create music, spread music and even spread spoken word messages. - Lyle Owerko 36 37

Gee Dad, It s a Wurlitzer Jukeboxes allow people to share their favorite songs in public usually restaurants and bars. In these places, everyone can be a DJ, and you might get applause if you play a fantastic song. At Mel s Restaurant, there is a jukebox at each table so you can play your songs while enjoying your meal. I didn t hear the music stop the whole time I was having dinner. Everyone really enjoyed playing it. 38 39

Where Is the Sharing Place? You rarely see a person carrying a boombox or a place with jukebox nowadays. Have you been to a live concert? What is the difference between watching a live show and a live video on YouTube? Where can you feel the real, instant interactions between yourself, music, and other people? 79% of interviewees said they seldom have a chance to share their music because in most public spaces (bar, party, café) they are being shared with by other people. 40 41

Condition Statement The mobility and accessibility of digital music let people experience music at a new level. However, that experience has become more solitary. The social part of experiencing music seems to be limited to the Internet, on social media sites like Facebook or Twitter. Real interactions are missing when we only listen to music privately or share it digitally.

Redefine Music Curation It s All about Showing Your Music Tastes Music curation used to be controlled by radio DJs or music critics. However, thanks to sharing, people can build their own music libraries and become curators. Why do people like to share music? Through our own curation, we can find people who have the same musical taste as us. Curation has the ability to influence personal opinion, sway popular demand, to create collective memory. It is becoming an inherent facet of music consumption, live or recorded, and should be recognized as an innovative, creative practice. - Steven Hall 44 45

DJ Eel Eel is a famous DJ in Taiwan. He loves sharing music with others. The people who hear him at bars and parties may not all be his fans, but they all love music and dancing. He s proud of creating a zone to share music. DJ Buggy Conclusion Sharing music is not only done through social digital media. Instead, it can extend to the real physical world and provide more interactions with music and other people. However, there are still limitations to sharing music in public spaces. I expanded this idea into three different directions that can be opportunities for an industrial design project. Buggy has been a DJ for years. The biggest difficulty of being DJ for him is trying to satisfy people with different musical tastes. He has played for audiences that didn t like the songs he played, but he doesn t take that too seriously, because everyone has their own favorites. He always tries to make everyone enjoy his music. 46 47

DIRECTION 1 RECREATING THE NEW GENERATION OF MUSIC RETAIL STORE

The Music Retail Store Is Dying According to The Wall Street Journal, record store sales are projected to drop another 77.4% by 2016. Since we can purchase music online, the need for going out to record stores no longer exists. Will digital consumption take over physical stores entirely? At Rasputin Music in San Francisco, a staff member told me that the record store is inevitably dying and that the future would be small, indie stores. If music store chains want to survive, they need to change into something more than just a place for consuming. 50 51

The Old Still Lives On There are still people who go to music stores. They miss the nostalgia of vinyl. They like the experience of hunting for different types of music. They chat with the staff to find out about new music, and the listening stations let them listen to new music. These are all experiences you can t quite match online. Record Store Day is an event held in several independent stores once a year. Artists perform live, special edition records and CDs are on sale, and there are lots of activities like DJs spinning records. Every year it attracts thousands of people. Music stores still have the power to gather people together. However, this is just a once-a-year event. How can I help make music stores come alive again all year? 52 53

New Generation If a music retail store is not just a place for people to purchase music, but also a lifestyle experience, will it attract more people? Imagine a new system or interface that helps people discover and share music before they consume; that would add a unique experience compared to buying music online. With more people coming to the stores, the growth of the physical music industry would also increase. 54 55

DIRECTION 2 MAKING PUBLIC SPACE BECOME A PLACE FOR SHARING

The Decline of Boombox Culture Boomboxes were socially unacceptable in public spaces because they were too loud; the Walkman, headphone, and social digital media took their place, and people stopped sharing music together in public. Why do people think boomboxes are noisy? One of the reasons is that they may not like the music being played on a boombox. For instance, people who listen to classical music might regard heavy metal as unendurable noise. In addition, it is not sharing if one doesn t like what the other shares. So, how can I use the idea of sharing music in public while letting other people select whether to join or not? 58 59

Silent Frisco Silent Frisco is an event for people to share music quietly. Everyone gets a pair of headphones, moves his/her body, and enjoys the songs played by a DJ in public. They do not have to talk to each other; music and body language connect them. Once we removes noise and nuisance from the equation, public gatherings can be scene for what they truly are: an unalienable civil right. - silentfrisco.com In addition, people don t realize that there are lots of public spaces where they can share music. What about having a music festival while waiting for the bus to come? 60 61

Public Space If we can share music in public spaces without bothering the people who do not want to participate, then we can bring back the boombox culture at a new level. I found that most people can t find public spaces to share music or they are always being shared with in public. However, some public spaces do have the potential of becoming a place for sharing. 62 63

DIRECTION 3 FEELING DIFFERENT SENSES IN MUSIC

CODAME 2013 ART+TECH Festival I went to this festival a month ago. It showed some experimental devices that combine different senses like auditory, tactile, optical, etc. For example, I could change melodies through my gestures. It inspired me to think about other ways to experience music besides listening. SubPac is a company that designs tactile audio products. Its goal is to make people feel music through their bodies. By wearing or sitting next to its product, you can feel a tactile boom, as if you were at a club or concert. 66 67

Music Curation Needs More Than An Ear When I think of sharing music, what other elements might make people join our music curation? It s not just about the auditory part. Especially when sharing music in public, we need other forms of music to attract people with the same musical taste. If you could see, smell, taste, or touch other people s music in public, would you join them? 68 69

Hypothesis If there is a system, interface, or design that can allow people to share or experience music together other than social digital media then people can experience music in different ways and have more interactions with music and other people.

Conclusion I once read an article that said we are living in the post-digital media world now our media is a combination of digital and analog. Each has its own benefits and limitations, and only through both of them can we experience the serendipity and beauty of music. In any case, it would be short sighted to assume that we will just live in front of computer screens without any need for physical materialization of the digital data we own. - pfeifferreport.com/trends/pfeiffer_music_rep.pdf 72 73

BIOGRAPHY AND PORTFOLIO

Rex Yu MFA Candidate, Industrial Design 76 77

Project 1 WeShare Idea Sketches WeShare is a digital frame design for the elderly. It connects digital photos and real photos with a printer, scanner, and simple interface on a digital frame. There s Wi-Fi in it for young people to share digital photos from their computers. The elderly can easily print and share photos and create photo albums. The Gap between the elderly and young people on sharing photos 78 79

Sketches 80 81

Scenario 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 82 83

Scan to Your Family Print from Your Family Share on WeShare 84 85

Project 2 Mission Workshop Arkiv C6 Field Pack The Arkiv C6 Field Pack is a bag design that consists of different bags. The inspiration comes from families who enjoy traveling together. During their travels, each carries bags of different kinds, sizes, and colors. C6 uses this concept of different bags being attached together, united like a family. Its modular system gives travelers freedom to evolve and adapt as needed. However, does it only connect bags? What else could it bring together? 86 87

Inspiration Sketches I found it interesting that when we brainstormed what travelers usually carry, some people mentioned family. We sometimes travel with our family to share our excitement and joy. So, what should the bags look like for a family? Can they group together, just like a family? Is this a new opportunity to develop the Arkiv system for family travelers? 88 89

Sketch Model CAD My first sketch models were too big, so I decided to change the sizes. 90 91

Model Construction Bags Connect Us Together 92 93

Project 3 Embrace Concept Embrace is an MP3 speaker for the family. What should an MP3 speaker look like when the whole family wants to enjoy music together? There is no doubt that everyone listens to different kinds of music. Embrace can play everyone s favorite music randomly when they put their ipods or other players into it. Then everyone can enjoy their own music together. Embrace is a symbol of sharing. The shape looks like a person who embraces all the ipods together. It is a bridge to connect family members. 94 95

Orthographic Function 96 97

Bibliography Books Record Store Days by Calamar & Gallo, 2009 How Music Works by David Byrne, 2012 Documentary PressPausePlay by David Dworsky & Victor Köhler, 2011 Website How Do You Listen To Music? The Slow Listening Movement by Jean-Robert Saintil <http://www.chorusandecho.com/articles/view/how-do-you-listen-to-music-the-slow-listening-movement_82141> Slow Listening: 100% Solk s Fort Romeau on the Need to Rethink Our Approach to Music Consumption by Fort Romeau, 2012 <http://www.factmag.com/2012/07/12/slow-listening-100-silks-fort-romeau-on-the-need-to-rethink-our-approach-to-music-consumption/> YouTube Co-Founder Chad Hurley s Next Act by Jill Krasny, 2013 <http://www.inc.com/jill-krasny/youtube-cofounder-chad-hurley-next-act.html> The Boombox: Return of a Cultural Icon by Leo Kent <http://www.humansinvent.com/#!/8916/the-boombox-return-of-a-cultural-icon/> Music Curation by Steven H Hall, 2009 <http://musiccuration.blogspot.com/2009_11_01_archive.html> Record Store Day <http://www.recordstoreday.com/homel> Silent Frisco <http://www.silentfrisco.com> SubPac <http://www.thesubpac.com> Why the Audio CD Is Dying...And What Will Replace It by Pfeiffer Consulting, 2007 <http://www.pfeifferreport.com/trends/pfeiffer_music_rep.pdf> 98

1> MUSIC, INDUSTRIAL DESIGN, AND ME 2> WELCOME TO THE DIGITAL MUSIC WORLD 3> SHARING IS HUMAN 4> RECREATING THE NEW GENERATION OF MUSIC RETAIL STORE 5> MAKING PUBLIC SPACE BECOME A PLACE FOR SHARING 6> FEELING DIFFERENT SENSES IN MUSIC 7> BIOGRAPHY AND PORTFOLIO WARNING: All Rights Reserved. Unauthorized duplication is a violation of applicable laws. 12-12-2013-09-40