Someone suggested that Suss Müsik repost our contributions to the weekly Disquiet Junto projects, because they enjoy reading the explanations of the tracks. While you’re reading the original post, make sure you check out the other contributors’ works as well.
According to behavioral scientist B.J. Fogg, there are three types of group-level motivators: cooperation, recognition and competition.
Waiting on the telephone is a strange sort of purgatory that offers little intrinsic value. Being on hold might be considered cooperative, in a sense, because we’re making a conscious choice to wait. But there’s nothing in the way of recognition, or even acknowledgement to be gained. “Your call is important to us.” Sure it is.
Which leaves the third motivator, competition. “When you set up a competition,” writes Fogg in his book Persuasive Technology. “People become energized. They want to invest time and effort. They care about the outcome. Competition is perhaps the most powerful group-level intrinsic motivator … there doesn’t need to be a prize; there doesn’t need to be any external incentive.”
For this short piece, Suss Müsik designed a competitive listening experience between telephone technology and the listener’s patience. A dial tone was sampled and refactored through a Tensor pedal and doubled with high-distortion e-bow. Behind that mess is a piano playing a softly repeating loop, blissfully unaware.
The effect resembles someone humming and impatiently drumming their fingers on a table, getting more upset the longer they wait. The piece was composed quickly and recorded live to 8-track.
The piece is titled FBM in honor of Fogg’s Behavior Model.