This post serves as the third part of my second exercise for my IDEA 2900 special topics course I took in the Spring 2022 semester at Kwantlen Polytechnic University. This assignment served as a written reflection on your participation in the course’s first listening exercises. Through it you have the opportunity to comment, with considerable latitude, on the full range of experience with these activities, including what you expected or assumed would happen before engaging with them, what you experienced during the activities, and how your initial impressions may have been changed or challenged after they were completed. This last step is particularly important because it asks you also to summarize your observations and learnings.
Exercise 3: SORTING THE SOUNDS - SOFT / LOUD, PLEASANT / UNPLEASANT
What I expect / assume will happen
In going back to the first chapter of Julia Cameron’s THE LISTENING PATH, she aptly describes the first part of this sound exercise as well:
The listening path tunes us into our surroundings. Its first tool focuses on what we hear around us. We take the time to notice our sonic environment. Is it soothing or abrasive? Loud or soft? As we tune into the sounds around us, we take notice of what it is we’d like to change (Cameron 39).
For Cameron, this is important to consider how sound can impact the connections related to our own personal creativity. A soothing, soft soundscape will be more adept at keeping one calm, and cultivating creativity. Abrasive, loud sounds have the potential to make one agitated or upset, and as such, it might interfere with one’s ability to be creatively productive.
Pedro Lasch and Mathias Hinke, in their Coursera course, EXPERIMENTS WITH SOUND, describe the analytical concept of perspective as having three major categories which relate to the second part of this listening exercise: the intimate, the local, and the global. For Lasch and Hinke, “…the intimate is that sonic sphere that is the closest proximity to your own ears. And that would be only you, or the point of reference you can listen to… at a very close proximity… (it is called) intimate because only you would be able to listen to it” (Lasch / Hinke). In terms of a local perspective, Lasch and Hinke use the example of two people being able to sit in a café and still being able to listen to each other while they talk as being representative of a local perspective. And in terms of the global perspective, that would represent all the sounds in the entire café, where if the café “…were an orchestra, we would be thinking of all the different instruments that make sound in that performance” (Lasch /Hinke). This concept of perspective, seems to fit the idea that the second part of this exercise is trying to work with when considering where you are in relation to a particular sound.
The Sort
LOUD / SOFT
Arrange the sounds you heard up and down the page according to how loud or soft they seemed to be.
PLEASANT / UNPLEASANT
Arrange the sounds you heard up and down the page according to how pleasant or unpleasant they were.
SOUND MAP
Draw a medium sized circle. Place all the sounds you made in the circle. Arrange all the others according to the distance and the direction from which they came to you.
What I experienced
There was nothing jarring for me in regards to any of these noises, except perhaps the sound of my keyboard. I’m now working on writing this at a local Starbucks, and it’s much noisier in here. So much so, that I strain to hear the tap tap tap of my fingers clicking my keyboard’s keys. I’m still uncertain as to whether or not the voice in my head counts as a sound – but it is one that annoys me a lot. It’s a noise I need to learn to become more patient with, more compassionate and gentle towards. The technological noises created by the fridge likely qualify as a kind of white noise that fills the space most of the time that I honestly don’t really notice when I’m at home.
How my initial impressions may have been changed or challenged
My impressions were more affirmed than challenged or changed. Listening is an important activity that many of us don’t utilize to the best of our ability. In terms of what Cameron speaks to in THE LISTENING PATH, I’m drawn to how she is really speaking about cultivating mindfulness when it comes to how we respond to different soundscapes:
Gentle sounds make for gentle lives. As our kindly sounds sooth our psyches, we become more kindly. Rather than acting abruptly, as harsh, staccato sounds seem to demand, we respond, rather than react, and we respond tenderly. As we take in the sonic environment that speaks to our heart, we are able to forge more heartfelt lives. As we soften the tone of our lives, we soften our responses to the world around us. No longer harsh and staccato, our lives become gentler.
An evening spent at home can be made far less lonely with the addition of a pleasant soundtrack. Music soothes the savage beast, and it soothes us as well. A favorite selection changes the quality of our life. Our mood loses its jagged edge (Cameron 40).
INSTRUCTOR FEEDBACK
”Dear Steven,
Thank you for your detailed descriptions and multiple listening and writing attempts. I really appreciate the efforts you have placed in this assignment, especially with the additional readings from other sources regarding listening.
You mentioned that your assumption that this would be an easy exercise was not to be. I am glad that you found this listening experience difficult because you were able to take listening to another level, one that is profound and personal. The Beethoven clip that you shared really demonstrated such an intensity. We often forget that listening rattles the consciousness and indeed, makes our "monkey minds" turn to countless associations related to our past, present, and even future selves. We listen with our entire being. Not simply with our bodies, but also with our minds and our subconscious. This is why the argument that music is higher Art can be so controversial.
Beethoven in particular, is known for his drastic use of harsh and tender musical ideas. With this in mind, I am a true believer that kindness cannot be truly appreciated without suffering. That one who has not suffered, will not be able to expense kindness (towards oneself and others) that is laced with insightful empathy. In other words, I do appreciate what Cameron said regarding gentle sounds that begets a gentle life, however, I caution that to put gentle sounds on a pedestal can also lead us into appreciating and seek out particular sounds (soft, heartfelt, etc.) and tune out the ugly, the grotesque, and the hurtful sounds, which is an impossible task and probably not beneficial in the long run either. There is always a play in balance. For we can never fully escape the unpleasant. So we need to embrace the unpleasant and learn to balance the noise with sounds that soothe.
That being said, if you have not seen the video with Evelyn Glennie, please do. Sounds and vibrations are very much connected. One thing in particular, is that Evelyn Glennie touches upon what Schafer is also trying to advocate - how to truly listen and also to dispense judgements on what we hear. Judgements, not just in relation to the type of musical genres or the type of sounds, but also to dispense judgement about the noises in our heads and the voices of others. This stance, I believe, leads us to being kinder and more open to unfamiliarity and discomfort.”
Grade for Reflections 2.1-2.3: 98/100