Please Touch Me

While legislators and the Recording Industry Artist Association are “fighting back” against music piracy and finding the same degree of success as someone trying to save the Titanic with an empty bucket and a can of Flex Seal, a coalition of British scientists, researchers, and musicians are developing innovative ways to bring modern-day interactivity to the tactility of the music experience that was lost in its digitization.

This week at South By Southwest in Austin, Liverpool-based communications agency Uniform is premiering their new “Listening Post” prototype. The “Listening Post” is a simple poster made from just about any type of paper capable of being printed on, but instead of the standard printer ink you pick up from Staples in exchange for 3 months’ rent, Listening Posts feature conductive inks connected to tiny circuit boards. When touched, Posts will play song samples, log “Likes,” and even allow fans to book show tickets. In addition to the posters, Uniform has developed a postcard that contains a sample of music to be played on “paper players,” distributable with the same ease as those Chinese food menu handouts you ignore on streetcorners.

The project, which was created in association with art collective Found, Scottish musician Kenny Anderson (aka King Creosote), University of Dundee’s Dr. Jon Rogers, and Novalia (the Cambridge firm that produces the printable conductive inks), aims to chip away at “infobesity”. As Uniform’s director, Peter Thomas, explains: “People are saturated with information all the time, especially when it comes to music, this is a way to cut through all of that.” The idea is that if a music fan is able to tangibly interact with the information being presented, he or she is more likely to retain and engage with it. “We’re trying to recapture some of the tactile experience you got with vinyl records…There’s a really different reaction from users to physical media as opposed to digital media, especially when it comes to music.”

While Listening Posts stand to revolutionize the business of music promotion, the technology is also being tapped as a possible means to excite music consumers on the notion of purchasing a physical product again–something that’s been rendered more-or-less obsolete with the popularity of the MP3, save for vinyl-collecting aficionados and baby boomers who think that iTunes will steal their social security numbers. Scientists and engineers are currently in the process of shrinking circuit boards, developing cheaper and more easily accessible conductive inks, and establishing the means for wide-scale production with the intent to incorporate this new interactivity in album packaging, posters, physical press kits, and anything else you can stick under a standard printing press.

And though audiophiles are the first major audience to get a taste of the incredibly useful infinite creative potential of “smart paper,” Thomas and company are by no means stopping at just the music industry: “It will be a couple of years before we see smart paper as a really meaningful proposition but it’s definitely going to happen. Music is a focus for us but it’s just the tip of the iceberg.”

@sashahecht