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Activaire brings avant-garde music to avant-garde architecture.
By Julien Devereux
The Metropolis Observed
March 2003
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Web exclusive:
Metropolis asked Activaire to design sound tracks for three famous
buildings and one space notorious for piped-in music: the elevator.
Below are playlists Wiesenthal devised. To hear the music, click on the
titles below. All files are in MP3 format. |
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The days of piped-in "elevator music" in retail stores--schmaltzy
wordless versions of "Feelings" or "The Girl from Ipanema"--are
mostly behind us. But the "lite rock" and "smooth jazz"
that have replaced it are hardly an improvement. Lara Wiesenthal is working
to change that. A DJ with an architecture degree from the Pratt Institute,
she started the company Activaire in 1999 to offer music better suited to
the interesting retail spaces in New York.
"I consult with the owners of a store," Wiesenthal says, "look
at the materials in their space, and ask myself what's going to sound good
there." She then fills an MP3 player with 30 hours of specially
selected music licensed from electronic and dance music labels. "I
try to score the space as if it were in a movie," she says.
The MP3 player shuffles the songs, so customers never hear them in
the same order, or hear a particular one more than once a week. Every three
months Activaire supplies clients with 30 more hours of music. So far the
company has created sound tracks for Jussara Lee's West 12th street boutique,
the Stuart Moore Gallery of Designer Jewelry, and the Frank Gehry-designed
Issey Miyake store, all in New York.
"Architecture is about movement through space, and of course people
move to music too," Wiesenthal says. "I left the field of
architecture to spend more time with music. It's been really nice because
it's made me enjoy architecture more."
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