This is the so-called playback technique, a rather weird technomagickal curse invented by the famous postmodern writer and sorcerer William S. Burroughs. It is most effective against places, like shops or businesses, but can also be used to screw up individuals.
The method involves a portable sound recorder; Burroughs used a small tape recorder, but today a smartphone app can be employed no less successfully. At first, sounds are collected that belong to the chosen target, like common everyday noise of the facility, or the voice of the person against whom the baneful operation is being conducted. Then over the course of several days or weeks the operator returns to the target site and plays the previously recorded sounds in reverse at a low or even indiscernible volume, weaving disharmony and alienation into the energy of the place. (In case of digital workflow, a free audio editor like Audacity can be used to easily reverse direction of playback)
I have frequently observed that this simple operation making recordings and taking pictures of some location you wish to discommode or destroy, then playing recordings back and taking more pictures – will result in accidents, fires, removals, especially the last. The target moves…
Burroughs subsequently refined the technique. He started to mix “trouble noises” into the recordings which he described as “recordings of alarm bells, breaking glass, fire engines, as well as sound effects of explosions, machineguns, and riots recorded from TV”. Burroughs also combined the playback with his cut-up technique, cutting out the image of the target from the photographs, thus literally removing it from existence. That’s how Burroughs reported on his operation against Moka Coffee Bar in his journal:
Here is a sample operation carried out against the Moka Bar at 29 Frith Street, London, W1, beginning on August 3, 1972. Reverse Thursday. Reason for operation was outrageous and unprovoked discourtesy and poisonous cheesecake. Now to close in on the Moka Bar. Record. Take pictures. Stand around outside. Let them see me. They are seething around in there… Playback would come later with more pictures… Playback was carried out a number of times with more pictures. Their business fell off. They kept shorter and shorter hours. October 30, 1972, the Moka Bar closed. The location was taken over by the Queen’s Snack Bar.
The method could be taken even further, since one can not only drive out the enemy business, but actually replace it with a more desirable facility by playing its corresponding sounds and photoshopping it into the pictures instead of the target. So keep that grandfather’s Walkman close at hand in case someone tries to poison you with a cheesecake at some dodgy joint.
