Echoes of music we dont listen to.Phenomenological investigation of the sonical enviroment of contemporary marketplaces.
Abstract
The post modern landscape of today´s cities has some common elements. One of them has been the rise of so called temples of consumerism, the hypermarkets, shopping malls and other marketplaces.
Usually situated on the edge of the city, these places change the movement within the city. Close to the highway, they create a new figure of movement within the city.
They become a new center which breaks with the geographical and traditional center of the city. Within these places we can find a new and peculiar soundscapes as well.
On the first sight it could seem that hypermarkets and shoping malls arent so different from traditional market from pre-modern era. We see crowd of people going to and fro, chatting with each other and so on.
But the reality is different. My aim is to examine how much more is going on in terms of sound and our sonic experience in places like hypermarket.
Unlike the sound of traditional market, big part of the soundscape of a hypermarket is made by design. Using music as an element of this artificial soundscape, this design has a specific function, which is a part of the very purpose of these places.
By examining this sonic enviroment i want to expose some critical questions regarding the significance of sonic phenomenons for our perception and show how places like contemporary marketplaces mirror their significance.