After working with the marketing software Acxiom to gather consumer information, singer Vienna Tang wrote this hymn to the New Age of Big Data; that is, the mining by companies of knowledge of everything you buy and everything you do.
The vocal really is too beautiful to match the alarming words.
Says Vienna on her Soundcloud page:
Sacred music for the age of Big Data.
This was inspired by listening to Morten Lauridsen pieces, using Acxiom reports in my internship work this summer, and reading election news coverage, especially the Obama campaign’s use of analytics and Nate Silver’s Five Thirty-Eight blog.
Recorded using the VoiceTone Harmony-M. I actually wish it didn’t sound so realistic—thhe Hymn of e idea was to get enough weird robotic artifacts in there to creep you out.
Adds Metafilter:
Teng is no stranger to songs written from unusual perspectives, and has a bit of an unusual perspective herself. At age 23, she quit a software development job with Cisco Systems to become a full-time musician. Recently, she completed a graduate degree in environmental studies at the University of Michigan (a move perhaps presaged in one of her songs), while continuing to write and perform music.
In an interview with Ploughshares, Vienna Teng discusses creativity, grad school, environmentalism, and Big Data.
Click here to listen to “The Hymn of Acxiom”.