Just when you thought you’d seen enough ‘Eucalyptus’ (or as I like to call it, ‘Shrek’) green audio kit for one month — and please see the new Bose QuietComfort over-ear headphones for proof — a truly unusual prototype speaker crosses your desk and makes you go “It’s a… what now?”
What you’re looking at is mur mur. How to describe it? Let’s try ‘speaker meets AI-generated terrarium on a keychain’. No? Maybe ‘AI-generated ambient music linked to a tiny society, squirrelled into a physical product you can carry around, spy on and listen to as it evolves and changes’.
As for what goes on inside: maybe it’ll rain; maybe it’ll be sunny. Maybe there will be another heatwave and marine mammals will start migrating to areas never seen before in new and increasingly worrying ecological developments — all with accompanying AI-generated ambient sounds.
Mur mur is made by “a creative company on a quest to turn emerging technologies into an approachable, everyday and sustainable reality, for humans and beyond” of the same name.
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Unusually for a portable speaker, there are no listed Bluetooth credentials. That’s because it won’t play your Spotify playlists or connect with your phone; this is a self-governing ecosystem, thank you very much.
Hey tiny kingdom, how do? Any climate crisis in there (and if not, can I come in)?
Mur mur is available in three colorways, but they’re not skin-deep. Here, the hue corresponds to the type of society you’ll get when you look through the viewfinder at the top of the speaker. ‘Block!’ (white with orange accents) mur mur owners can expect “A tiny city and its society — morning rush hours, street musicians, delivery robots, pigeons”. ‘Plot!’ (green) meanwhile is a “lively forest full of chirping birds, crackling leaves, and the occasional lost hiker”, and ‘Pond!’ (blue) is a watery ecosystem “where soothing waves come alive with fish, ducks, and occasional boats”.
Perhaps the green model sounds most intriguing, because who could imagine being a hiker lost in an ever-evolving AI ecosystem? The accompanying audio I listened to for around 20 minutes on mur mur’s website sounds decidedly soothing (even if that scenario does not), but remember, you have no input here — the music and scenarios in this little thing happen whether you’re looking and listening or not. No AI prompt-made music here.
Mur mur says this trio of tiny worlds in speakers are currently still prototypes, so you can’t buy one yet, but the company is “looking for musicians, technologists, and hardware producers to help bring it to your desk, your keychain, or your studio”.
As a lover of human-made music, I won’t be first in line, but there’s something compelling about the promised uniqueness of each unit. Who knows, maybe 10 years down the line, certain mur mur communities will be running for government with a “lost hiker” running the show…
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