Lately I've been playing a game with the paper version of the "Sunday Times". I take the 8-10 sections out of their blue sleeve and try as quickly as possible to fine "THE" article. That one article that completely satiates something I've been thinking about on/off for possibly my entire life. This week it was "Stereo for One: A Brief Unaccompanied Tradition."

30 years ago the Walkman hit the streets, and the author in this article reflects on how this public headphone invasion still creates "solitary islands of disengagement" and "we are stuck in pause, still listening to glorious Pavarotti, but also blocking out the aural serendiptity of out existence--the chance conversations, the songbird trills, even the bleats of car horns."

 

Even though we aren't doing mobile music, we struggle with the isolating effect of our tours because they just demand headphones. Sure it's is our aim to make stuff that blends, enhances, and gets you more into your surroundings, but the headphones cut you off from stuff and even when they don't they might repel potential conversations because of the "i'm in my own world" attitude they carry.

 

While this really flies in the face of our "insider", "senstive" vision for Untravel Media, I do think we can override the negative effects. If we make media that might have certain breaks built in, to take off headphones and chat more (as our fades to black in "Blue Impact" are supposed to) and make media which is designed to fit into a continuum experience of headphone off/on (as with our bike tours concept) travelers will be taken deeper into a place without overly filtering out the outside world.