Personal Stereos

Medien / Netzkultur

Wired veröffentlicht ein Interview mit Michael Bull, dem laut NY Times weltweit einzigen Experten für «personal stereo devices» und deren soziale Auswirkungen.
Wired News: Bull Session With Professor IPod
Michael Bull: «One of the interesting things is that with vinyl, the aesthetic was in the cover of the record. You had the sleeve, the artwork, the liner notes. With the rise of digital, the aesthetic has left the object – the record sleeve – and now the aesthetic is in the artifact: the iPod, not the music. (…)
There’s a lot of studies in the literature that demonstrate with the urban space, the more it’s inhabited, the safer you feel. You feel safe if you can feel people there, but you don’t want to interact with them. Music allows people to find pleasure in the place they’re existing. (Personal stereos) make the user’s life much better. It helps them manage urban life…. Urban life is one of the reasons they’re using these devices. How often do you talk to people in public anyway?»