Coupland calls the singing voice of the human soul

Douglas Coupland tells The Morning News how he goes all Golan Levin on his audiences:

So without telling anyone in the audience why, I said 'Okay, who's got a phone' and called them up. 'Now go to your neighbor and find out their number and phone them and they’ll phone you back or whatever. House, could you dim down the lights?' Everybody thought it was 'hee hee, really funny.' Or whatever, David Byrne-postmodern. And then it went on for a minute and it had its own texture. And then the lights came up and the phones turned off and I told them what I was basing this on. And there was this reaction like everyone had been kicked in the gut. Then in Paris, at the Parisian Literary Festival, I did the same thing except I told people in advance why I am doing it and they did it and then the lights came up and everybody was in tears. There was this gasp of astonishment. Like how often do you hear the singing voice of the human soul? That's one of the few instances where visual stuff and written work have dovetailed so neatly.