By Jon Knowles

Folks strolling down Rue Wellington in Verdun take part in an anachronistic sensory experience that I can only describe as 1950's style mass deception.

Taking cue from the new exhibit 'Sensation Urbaines' at the Centre Canadien d'Architecture, while cruising down the main drag with your auditory radars set on high, you can catch an aural whiff of that Bossa Nova smash hit 'The Girl From Ipanema' (and other numbers) being emitted from little cylindrical speakers on lamp posts.



The concept of Muzak in a shopping district is not new, but what seems most peculiar is the music selection, and it's insinuated configuration. And yet, with all of today’s marketing strategies - this gimmick seems charming - if not straight up resistant to what occurs elsewhere, with our current climate of big boxification, and the subsequent degradation of Main streets.

Still though; If music is the barometer for our social climate, what should really be playing outside in a shopping district? And what would happen if we approached Rue Wellington with a site-specific praxis for the musical selection and it’s placement? Should the news be broadcasted? Maybe a pirate radio station set up by local teenagers? Perhaps, we would hear something from real musicians, or a music therapy session from these folks, or even a little something for the nature lovers.