(no subject)
As someone who's life revolves around sound, it's to see how people experienc the plethora of sounds that surrround them. In Central Park, there is a sonic arts installation in the foot tunnel between the children's zoo and the main zoo. It's filled with collected sounds from all over the city and fills this tunnel with a surreal auditory experience. This tunnel, know for it's echos, becomes an ethereal world filled by the sounds of 6 well placed speakers, and the comings and goings of so many people. Yet as someone who studies the experience of music (for which I borrow Blacking's definition of music as humanly organized sound), the thing that intrigues me the most is how people interact with their sonic environment. It's incredible to me to see how many people just walk through this tunnel of sounds, that is injected at numerous points by a voice saying "It's a noise show. Slow down...", without ever giving it a moment of though or attention. They effectively are disonnected from the auditory world they are part of. In the hour I spent listening and watching, only myself, an elderly couple, and two elderly ladies who are tour guides for the park stopped for any significant period of time. Beyond that, most just walked through all but oblivious to the sounds that they walk through. Mostly, it was the children who took the most interest. The occasional teen or adult would glance at the speakers or the 8 1/2" x 11" printed and laminated write up about the installation on the gate at either side of the tunnel. It really demonstrates how the specilized and compartmentalized space many people of this culture allow humanly organized sound is separate from that of their daily comings and goings. As someone who is so embeinged by sound and music, this is so foreign to me. My life is sound. But most do not live in this manner. Even less are taught, as I have been, the Cage paradigmatic principles about listening to the music of the world. So think about it. Ask yourself. Do you wander through your world oblivious to the sensuousness of the sonic environment you live in? Do you stop to smell the roses? If you do, do you also listen to the breeze that blows through them and makes the whole garden come alive with the rustling of the leaves? Do you ever listen to the sounds of the cooking, serving, and eating of the meal you savour on the tongue and smell? Do you ever give thought to the score of the movie and it's evocative power? Or do you just walk through the tunnel oblivious?
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