I’ve been living in my apartment for about 9 months now. Every morning on my way to work I walk past an ambiguous looking buliding with bold writing over the door that says, “Institute of Audio Research.” I didn’t really think much of it because I also walk right past the, “Amalgamated Lithographers of America” and the, “Video Hospital.” I guess I’ve just stopped wondering what goes on inside random New York buildings.

However, two things made the Institute of Audio Research stand out to me: First, there is always a big crowd gathered outside. Early in the morning. It’s usually a pretty hip hop-y looking type crowd, at 8:30 in the morning which is strange. Second, there have been little jars of chop sticks taped to the scaffolding in the area for “testing sound ratings” and post-its on all the polls with the various ratings…

Anyway, I looked it up. The Institute of Audio Research is a school for sound mixing and editing and has lots of famous rappers and djs as alumni. Pretty cool! The bulidng looks so boring. I thought they must have done some boring sound wave research or investigate noise violations or something. I guess you never know.