Kamp, Summers & Sweeney/Ludomusicology, 8. "Listening" through Digital Interaction in Björk’s 'Biophilia'

Within the past five years, technology has brought the popular music album into a new realm of possibility. What was once a purely auditory experience is now able to stimulate other senses, such as touch and sight, and can offer a physically, visually, and mentally engaging experience to the consumer. In this chapter, I examine Björk’s album Biophilia (2011), released both as a traditional recorded album and as an interactive multimedia project available for use on the iPad and iPhone. The interactive nature of Biophilia is in many ways comparable to a video game, allowing users to make choices that affect the music being heard during use. This drastic change to the format of the music album demands a response to the question: how does an interactive relationship affect the way we listen to music? This chapter uses the song ‘Solstice’ as a case study. The song’s iPad presentation is examined and the analysis shows how user actions affect the way in which the consumer may hear and engage with the song. Through