News
Sensory marketing and Christmas
Audiomarketing and the knowledge activation effect
Brian Eno and ambient music
Muzak, or „more than music”
How to “furnish” the space with music
Acoustic driving in audiomarketing
B for escape
About Music Psychology Zone
Welcome to the Music Psychology Zone, University of Warsaw! It is a space for people interested in music, psychology, and marketing. Here you will learn e.g. how and why music affects a person in various everyday situations, you will discover the backstage of audiomarketing, and you will understand why silence is sometimes more beautiful than music. We invite you to our blogosphere, where you will learn about the research conducted at the Institute of Musicology of the University of Warsaw!
Blog financed by funds from the 6th edition of the “Science is for People” competition, organized by the Center for Cooperation and Dialogue of the University of Warsaw (project implementation until March 2023). It has been developing since June 2023 thanks to winning the IDUB UW competition (III.3.2. Promotion of scientific research – 4th edition, path W and A).
About the Institute
The Institute of Musicology is part of the Faculty of Cultural and Art Sciences of the University of Warsaw. It is one of the leading musicological research and teaching centres, whose hallmark is innovative interdisciplinary research.
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Partnership
What makes us special
Credible research
All materials presented on the blog have been prepared on the basis of the results of scientific research conducted by Sylwia Makomaska, PhD, Dr. Habil. (Institute of Musicology, University of Warsaw), the initiator of this blog.
Research list:
“Acoustic wallpaper” in public space – from musique d’ameublement to audiomarketing
What do Erik Satie, Muzak, Brian Eno and audiomarketing have in common? What is the perceptual effect of “acoustic wallpaper”? Can the sender (a composer or a professional company) manage the listener’s auditory attention? How does music located on the periphery of attention become a tool of hidden persuasion and even manipulation? These are the key questions that shape the discourse on the strategy of acoustic engineering in public space and selected concepts of background music: artistic (musique d’ameublement, ambient music) and functional (muzak, audiomarketing).
Research carried out in 2017-2021, financed by the National Science Center within SONATA 12 project No. 2016/23/D/HS2/01773.
More information about the project: link
Qualified scientists
We cooperate with the most renowned scientists and research centers specializing in the psychology of music.
Our team
Sylwia Makomaska, PhD, Dr habil.
She is a musicologist, a political scientist and an assistant professor at the Institute of Musicology (University of Warsaw), the author of the concept of Music Psychology Zone.
In her research she combines different, sometimes distant perspectives. She is interested in psychoacoustics, cognitive, social and applied psychology of music, music therapy, as well as the usage of music in marketing. She is the author of the book „Music on the periphery of attention. From musique d'ameublement to audiomarketing” (2021, Warsaw: WUW) and dozens of scientific and popular science articles i.a. on absolute pitch, the phenomenon of background music or music therapy. She actively participated in over 40 scientific conferences. She is a member of the European Society for the Cognitive Sciences of Music and the Society for Interdisciplinary Musicology. Since 2013 she has been coordinating the cooperation of the Institute of Musicology (University of Warsaw) with the Foundation for Supporting Incurable and Chronically Ill People "I Am" (NGO located in Warsaw). She popularizes science (e.g. in cooperation with the Open University of Warsaw, the Chopin Museum or the Fryderyk Chopin Institute) and works as an expert in the field of music psychology.
More information on: link
Anastasiya Niakrasava, MA
She is an ethnomusicologist, a teacher and an artist, Music Psychology Zone web administrator.
She graduated from the Institute of Musicology (University of Warsaw) and the Pedagogical University of M. Tanka in Minsk (Belarus). In 2022 she finished doctoral studies at the Faculty of Arts and Culture at the University of Warsaw. She is preparing a doctoral dissertation on the musical culture of Polish people in the Grodno region (more: www.polskiepiesni.pl). In 2020-21 she participated in research grant „Acoustic wallpaper in public space – from musique d'ameublement to audiomarketing” (project financed by the National Science Center as SONATA 12 No. 2016/23 / D / HS2 / 01773, principal investigator: Sylwia Makomaska, PhD).
Her main area of research interests is the culture of minorities and borderlands, socio-political determinants of musical activities, vocal techniques and performance practices of the traditional rural repertoire. She is an author of many research, artistic and educational projects supported by IMiT, MKiDN and MEiN. She got the scholarships within Stefan Banach Program and the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage (for creators and people who popularize culture). Anastasiya received many awards for her artistic activities. She conducts classes and workshops at the University of Warsaw and for various educational and cultural institutions. She is involved in many social and multicultural projects.
More information on: link
Photo: Jagoda Tonderys
Paweł Siechowicz, PhD
musicologist, translator, music critic and educator, social media moderator at Music Psychology Zone till April 2023.
Senior assistant at the Institute of Musicology, University of Warsaw, Poland. He wrote about M.K. Čiurlionis’s musical imagination as well as the ideas and practices linking music and economy in the 18th and 19th centuries. His scholarly interests include the interdisciplinary areas of music and economy, music and painting, music and literature as well as music and nature. As music critic and educator he is interested in enhancing the experience of listening. He is a regular collaborator of the „Ruch Muzyczny” music magazine and the Chopin Museum in Warsaw.
Contact us
dr hab. Sylwia Makomaska
Instytut Muzykologii UW
smakomaska@uw.edu.pl
Web administator:
mgr Anastasiya Niakrasava
a.niakrasava@uw.edu.pl