For years, lobbies, elevators, and fluorescent-lit waiting rooms have been ruthlessly subjected to the free domain easy-listening jazz stylings of Muzak. Now thanks to Arca and artificial intelligence, the musical equivalent of beige wallpaper as people wait to go somewhere more important is soon behind us.
Arca took to Instagram today to reveal that for the next two years her music will be playing in the newly renovated lobby of the Museum of Modern Art in New York.
The piece was composed in partnership with Bronze.AI, which according to their website is "a new technology that allows music creators to utilize AI and machine learning as creative tools for composition and arrangement." Meaning that for the two year duration of the piece, the music will constantly mutate and rearrange itself so that it never repeats itself.
"It's amazing to think of how many people that don't know about my work will have my sounds passing through their body as they pass through the space," Arca wrote in her post.
The score will appear as a part of a new installation by Phillippe Parreno that was commissioned for the MoMA lobby, titled Echo. One of six site-specific works commissioned for the space, Parreno's work features two brightly lit marquees, a screen, and some 120 lamps that move in response to data that is gathered from the space in real time.
Photography: Annie Forrest