With regards to the sensory power unleashed by Steve Reich’s “Pendulum Music,” I was glancing at some reading about the idea of sound as weapon and came across a device that purports to use the keen ears of youthful teenagers, who may also be prone to acts of petty criminality like . . . er, loitering. It’s named the Mosquito, and it was designed to affect people from their teens up to the age of thirty or thereabouts, when the average person’s ability to reliably hear the frequency at which is broadcasts, 17.4 kHz, diminishes. Apparently the annoying quality comes into effect if the unfortunate soul remains in place for longer than ten minutes. The makers of the Mosquito, Compound Security (http://www.kidsbegone.com), maintain their device meets safety standards and cite the example that children have used their particularly higher hearing attentuation to make cellphone ringtones that elude adults’ (i.e. teachers) ears. Ingenious, no?
However, concern has been raised in the UK about the legality of such means, with detractors arguing the Mosquito falls in the realm of a violation of human rights. Not surprisingly, Compound Security’s research into the matter is at odds with such criticism.
Stumbling from that onward to an additional tangent, apparently the Republic of Ireland has found the Mosquito to be illegal on the grounds that--
anyone who "directly or indirectly applies force to or causes an impact on the body of another ... without the consent of the other" ... including "application of heat, light, electric current, noise or any other form of energy", is guilty of commiting assault. (wikipedia.org)
One wonders how well someone could make a case against noise bands like Wolf Eyes or even plain loud rock bands touring Olde Eire based on such criteria. It definitely gives me pause on the odd moment where I think about touring the Emerald Isle...er...
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