Today is World Listening Day, a day of awareness intended to support our collective attention to the sonic world in which we live -- and the implications and consequences of doing so. Much of the impact humans have on the world is best accessed through sound and so our tendency to ignore sound, an outcome of living in increasingly noisy urban environments, isolates us from that impact.
Pauline Oliveros told the story many times about the first time she recorded her environment, the sounds of her backyard from her bedroom window. She said she was shocked by all the things she heard in the recording that she hadn't noticed just listening. That's an artifact of recording -- and one of the reasons why I love field recording -- the recorder doesn't sort and prioritize sound the way the human perceptual apparatus does. When we then listen to a recording, it does a kind of end run around that apparatus; it helps us simultaneously focus our attention and expand it.
As an example and exercise, listen to these few minutes of my studio:
What did you hear? Maybe the first thing you noticed was the sound of the ceiling fan humming above my desk. My clothes swishing against the faux leather of my chair. The click and clatter of my mouse and keyboard. My unconscious ahemming and breathing. Distant thumps of my wife as she moves about downstairs. Maybe a very distant lawnmower. Some of these sounds I heard as they happened; many I discovered upon listening to the recording.
Take a moment today to sit and listen. It doesn't matter where you are or what is happening, just notice the sounds that go on around you. Let your ear wander, allow your attention to be pulled in whatever directions it may be. Notice what you notice. Listen. Your world, your environment, your community all can benefit from it.
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