It has been said that when the Walkman (a portable music player that took cassette tapes—cassette tapes being those analog plastic things that could record and play back sound), when this portable player was first invented, people didn’t know what to make of it. Sure, they liked the idea of carrying their own music, but headphones?
Pre-Walkman, all sound traveled through air before reaching an ear, any ear. Sound waves oscillated, bumping into each other, mixing with ambient noise before landing in the ear, any ear.
The sound from those headphones, though? It had this direct quality to it. Clean. Isolated. People weren’t used to listening to so much efficiency. They had to adjust to the straightness of headphone sound: that individual, solitary, world-excluding wave.
On July 30, Living Matters, a soundwalk on the grounds of Refshaleøen, Copenhagen, opens to the public. Johannes Bellinkx created the walk together with Sjoerd Leijten. Living Matters is part of the Metropolis Festival. One can do the walk at any time, using their own (head)phone.