TURN BANNER ADS INTO MUSIC.

In 2017, 615 million devices used ad blocking technology, while 11% of the global internet population were blocking ads on the web, according to Business Insider. Remarkable statistics and numbers that are only growing year by year. It also inspired AIAIAI, to do something about this banner fatigue, and create a music-based statement as a response.

AbEXP is an interactive track/soundscape in the shape of a Google Chrome plugin, where ad-block technology turns commercial web banners on a given website into an audio/visual experience. The different banners share a visual language of grayscale noise and gradients. The time of day decides if its day or night mode, and you can play around with most of the banners to influence the modular music-system created by acclaimed danish electronic duo, Kenton Slash Demon.

For some media, web banners are the main revenue-stream, we understand this. But we also hope that this experiment - or hack - can serve as a input to the discussion on how online media and advertisers, as well as artists, could act in the future. Try to think out of the (banner) box.

What we've ended up with is a way to avoid annoying ads, as well as it serves as (minimally) branded content for our headphone users, in its alternative method of making and releasing music.

In the end, AbEXP (and ad block technology) might not end up as a future platform for music-making or distribution. However, we hope that AbEXP - besides being a nice sounding break from banner ads - could be the starting point of a dialogue that inspires people to explore alternatives to the status quo.

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