Peter Doig’s ‘Home of Music’ and the significance of audio as a shared expertise

The Sound Service at Peter Doig’s Home of Music exhibition on the Serpentine Gallery has been open since early October. Whereas the exhibition itself explores themes of music and collective gathering, it’s this stay ingredient that absolutely prompts its central premise. Doig’s invited friends turn into curators of temper, sharing the data that matter to them and reworking the gallery right into a shared listening atmosphere.

On one of many exhibition dates, Olukemi Lijadu performed a variety handed down from each units of her grandparents. She wasn’t simply choosing tracks; she was activating an archive – shifting music from personal reminiscence into public tradition.

This heritage was projected into the room by a sound system that defied the invisible nature of recent audio. Created by Laurence Passera and DSP London, it was a towering 7-ft scaffold-like construction – extra architectural set up than hi-fi.

It dominated the area with a silent, bodily authority, a monument that insisted listening be a collective, grounded act. About twenty of us sat on the ground. In that shared posture of anticipation, the dynamic shifted totally. The expertise turned much less about passive consumption and extra about collective engagement.

Reclaiming bodily areas for audio

We’ve ended up with a stark selection: hear alone or share music solely in areas that may be bodily and financially demanding. What’s lacking are the easy, communal environments that make shared listening really feel pure – and open to everybody. This lo-fi, free expertise felt demonstrative of that third method. It jogged my memory that audio operates on a completely totally different frequency when it’s shared. The music turned the gallery right into a multi-sensory atmosphere the place sound turned structure and presence turned participation.

And crucially, it proved that shared listening doesn’t want spectacle or scale to ship influence. It simply wants intention – an area designed for folks to collect, hear, and really feel linked. In that room, the social worth of music was not an add-on to the audio; it was the purpose.

This expertise highlights a crucial stress in our present music economic system. Streaming has delivered unprecedented private entry however at the price of cultural fragmentation. We hear greater than ever, but more and more, we hear alone. Platforms compete on algorithmic personalisation, however lasting cultural worth is cast in shared feeling,the second when which means is discovered collectively and validated by the presence of others.

The Sound Service demonstrated that worth in music isn’t simply within the audio itself, however within the context that surrounds it. These tracks exist in all places on-line – but on this room, at this second, they felt distinct. What mattered wasn’t the rarity of the music, however the shared atmosphere that gave it weight and presence.

This is a vital reminder for the broader audio panorama. Solitary listening will all the time be important – but it surely can’t be the one mode. When shared, music does greater than entertain; it convenes, communicates, and connects. These social capabilities are a part of its cultural energy, not a secondary bonus.

Accessible listening areas – whether or not galleries, neighborhood venues or public websites – have to be handled as core infrastructure, not a pleasant to have.