What is the Shape of Sound...
What is the Shape of Sound...
The below drawings are meant to conceptualize the shape of the various spaces encountered within the soundscape. I recommend listening to the soundscape and scrolling through the pictures…. But please interact with this as you like.
Room 1
Room 2
Various encounters of the in-between
Steps of Provoked Soundings
Emerging from the Gallery
Moving Through the Street Fair
Deep Listening
Deep listening, a concept pioneered by composer and musician Pauline Oliveros, emphasizes the intricate act of listening beyond mere auditory perception. This practice distinguishes between ‘hearing’, the passive reception of sound waves, and ‘listening’, an active intentional and immersive engagement with sound. Deep listening extends into the realms of the felt experience, inviting listeners to explore not only the texture and nuances of sound, but also the emotional histories that accompany the sounds we encounter. Through deep listening we open up a space for understanding sound as the complex, multidimensional experience that encompasses physical sensation, emotional resonance, and cognitive recognition. This approach encourages an expansive awareness of the sonic environment, fostering a deeper connection with the present moment and the many ways that sound influences and is entwined with our experiences.
I invite you to listen to the layers of the soundscape above. Jump around from focal to global awareness of the sounds. Don’t necessarily focus on identifying the sounds, think about how they feel, in what part of the body they land, and what color and shape they evoke.
Soundings…
Deep Listening is not just about listening; it is about making the sounder(s) feel heard; it is about awareness and attention; it is about feeling-finding. In deep listening, we are participating, we are exploring, rhythmizing noises to make sense of a greater composition; forefront, background, focal, global, past, future, now. Opening our ears wide to hear the whole(ness) of sounds, a sounding that envelopes us, a sounding that sometimes is the absence of sound. A deep listening that goes beyond the auricular, less about hearing and more about experiencing. A co-experience(ing) that does not wait for sound to tell a story; rather, it stories soundings. Anarchic waves and frequencies canalized into affective patterns, reaching into the past and future for sense-making the feeling of the present, transforming felt(ness) into form, noise-in-formation becomes information.
Retrospective Reflection of Denmark Deep Listenin
This soundscape was recorded during the Occupational Science Europe Conference 2023 in Denmark. I had arrived a day before the conference and decided to explore the city of Odense. I wandered around until I came across a beautiful park with an art gallery and cafe overlooking the canal. I decided to check out the art gallery. As I started walking around the gallery, I became immediately aware of the acoustics. This is typical for neurodiverse people, the experience of sensation in ways that are intense and enlivening. The things that some may not notice stand out to us, at times, our attention is dispersed rather than focused, we notice arrays of sensations and stimulus. It’s not a deficit in attention, it’s an abundance of attention. It’s not sensory seeking because we need more, its sensory seeking because it feels so good.
The large empty spaces filled with magnificent echoes and reverberations as I made my way around each room. The sound of the creaking floorboards, the conversations bouncing off the space, the layers of sounds creating a sound and vibration of its own. I sought out and created some of my own noise by tapping my feet and shifting my weight as I walked through the the large space with the wooden floors. I noticed the textures of the different voices, those of the children and of adults, the sharp, soft, and bouncy voices.
I made my way outside as the layers of sounds washed over me. A veil of soft amber static from the traffic carried me across the street, and I began meandering through a local art fair, escorted by the drift of music from the bottom of the street to the top. The band was playing a kind of nostalgic music that wrapped around as I walked by, a whirl of good(ness). As I made my way past various stalls I noticed the people chatting, leaning in and out as they passed warm smiles and cool laughter. The man giving an art demonstration seemed to be glowing, how wonderful it must have been to have a crowd appreciating his work and admiring his process. I side-stepped some of the thicker chunky banter happening in sporadic pockets along the street. I directed my appreciation towards the breeze, making itself noticed by brushing across my face. Bits of flower petals and pollen had become entangled in a whirlwind that moved across the brick until it wore itself out. As I approached the top of the street, I bid farewell to the music as it faded away in the distance. Taking a deep breath in and out, I tried to somehow lock-in the sensation of peace I was carrying in my body. What a lovely day this had turned out to be. As I made my way back to the hotel I reflected on the fact that I didn’t speak to anyone throughout any of my little journey. I didn’t speak the language, but didn’t need to, I wasn’t listening to any of the words, I was feeling the colors, shapes, and textures, of the sounds.