“The sensation of the eerie clings to certain kinds of physical spaces and landscape….. The weird becomes untendered from any naturalisation or sense of homeliness.” Mark Fisher
copyright © Olsen 2020
The story begins with the voice of the land, seen through a window beyond our reflection. A threshold or portal into the other world, the land will guide us into sound and light.
Listening: In-between Focusing and Blurring
“It is important to relize that focussing on something necessarily blurs something else…”[1] F.G Asenjo
I organised a sound activity for some of the children during the August session of Quarrymill Adventures. Each child was given a sound recorder and headphones, and asked to find and record different woodland sounds. RSPB Volunteer Katie, even helped to make a woodland xylophone for the children to play and record!
I asked one child to record the sound of a bird singing. After a few minutes, the child came running back and informed me that no birds were singing in the woods today. I was slightly baffled and I stopped for a moment to focus on listening for birds. I heard Crows’ cawing, a Robin chattering, and a Woodpigeon cooing in the distance.
“Can you hear the Crows?” I asked. “No, I can only hear the water from the burn and the wind in the trees,” they replied. I needed to focus the child’s attention so I looked up into the trees. I could see a Coal-tit sitting on a branch. “Can you see the bird in the tree? Listen! It is singing?” I questioned as I pointed towards the bird. “Yes, I hear it tweeting and moving on the twig,” the child replied, as they eagerly pressed the red button on the sound recorder.
I began to reflect on the child’s experience of recording sound. I wonder if the sound of birdsong is so frequent; the sound of water and wind so predominant, they could not focus on listening to the bird singing. The action of listening is very different from hearing. Hearing is an ability we are born with; a passive process of our ears receiving signals at a subconscious level and requires very little concentration. Yet, listening is a skill we learn; an active process of interpreting the signals our ears receive at a conscious level and requires focus and concentration.
By introducing a visual element to the child’s perception (the bird in the tree) it allowed the child to focus on the birdsong. The child needed to blur the background noise of the woodland. They turned their body towards the sound. Their eyes located the sound source to help the ears hear and their mind to focus, filter and interpret the signal. This action presented the movement between focusing and blurring. For this child, the whole body was needed to focus and listen to a selected sound. This selective auditory attention is the ability to focus on a specific sound while filtering out other noises, it is also known as the cocktail party effect[2].
[1] Asenjo, F. G. (1988). In-between: an essay on categories, Center for Advanced Research in Phenomenology & University Press of America, Washington, D.C. P15
[2] Cherry, E. C. (1953). Some experiments on the recognition of speech with one and with two ears. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 25, 975–979.
A walk with the people like you.
We move in-between the green,
the green and dandelions on a quiet corner of a Paisley route.
Route, control and space.
We quickly walk, red brick, red brick to Sma Shot Lane.
Past the Jesus is the reader sign and the weavers’ lion statue.
A stroll towards the New street.
We stop and look up. I’m not sure about the cherubs.
Quick, march past Mr Kebab and the vertical lines of The Russell Institute.
The God of medicine twisting an enchanting tale…
We pass a shopping trolley, coffee shop and an empty store.
An empty space with an empty corporation.
I look for a sign, a blue Yes2 and a bus stop zone
We arrive at the abbey, governed by order.
Move quietly and be considerate.
A timeline of happening from 1163, tick, tick, tick…
We hear about the monks who have been cleaning up for 400 years.
Dusting and washing tired feet. It’s time to leave.
Hello to Bonnie Fleurs and the High Street.
We wait at the curb for the red man to turn green.
The pace of the pack slows into the historic town.
A voice cries “Before you go, remember, look up and search for Paisley pigeons.”
We listen to the sound of the bird’s wings until…
our tale is what remains.
© Olsen 2019
This poem was created in response to a walking tour around Paisley in Scotland. The Tour was led by Dr. Alison McCandlish as a part of the ‘Participatory Methods and Affective Domains: Walking, Documenting and Sensing as Practice course delivered by the University of West Scotland.
“Listening to sound is where objectivity and subjectivity meet” [1]
In Voegelin book Listening to noise and silence, she discusses a liminal quality found in listening. She describes listening as an experience of our perception. The listener produces objectivity from the subjective listening position. Objective thought is what we take to be the objective world. For example a computer screen, the table etc. A subjective thought is what we take to be our narrative thinking or imagination. For example the thoughts you have while listening.
I consider listening to sound is an in-between experience. Sound can be activated as a disruption, or incursion, in-between the objective and subjective experience. We can describe this disruption as being in-between mind and matter.
copyright © Olsen 2018
I have searched for In-between categories found in the audible world. In Asenjo book ‘In-between: an essay on categories, He believes contradictions should not be eliminated or modified as they provide “an ‘opportunity for a richer, two sided development of factual meaning[2].’
I consider soundscapes create an experience that opens up the possibilities of in-between-ness. Within an immersive soundscape, a dynamic interplay of in-between categories happens, for example, cause and event[3], objectivity and subjectivity and feelings in-between the strange and the familiar. The In-between categories found in sonic realities are not fixed points, for example; in-between presence and absence. Our perception moves or flows in-between these two points.
[1] Voegelin, S. 2010, Listening to noise and silence: Towards a philosophy of sound art. New York: Continuum International Publishing Group. P14
[2] Asenjo, F. G. (1988). In-between: an essay on categories, Center for Advanced Research in Phenomenology & University Press of America, Washington, D.C. P65
[3] Augoyard, J; Torgue, H. (2006). Sonic Experience. a Guide to Everyday Sounds.. Canada: McGill-Queen’s University Press.
A story about the restoration of a Khalkha Mongol Headdress (pre-1900), loaned to the McManus Galleries in Dundee by L J Miller (1931).[1]
The Khalkha Mongol Headdress has been selected, restored and cared for by the McManus. The conversation reveals an object expressing meaning beyond its physical presence within the history of specific events; Mongolian trade routes, craftsmanship and the possible design influence of a headdress worn in Star Wars, Episode 1: The Phantom Menace.
The vocal sound creates meaning found outside language and the spoken word.[2] Inside our perception, the vocal sound allows you to hear the affect the headdress’s journey has had, on the speaker’s feelings.
“Feelings may also link feelings, and this superimposed relationship leads us to an in-between of in-betweens…”[3].
What we hear in tone and vocal expression reveals emotion. To listen and contemplate to the story, bridges us between our personal and shared feelings towards treasured objects. Binaural microphones were used to create an intimate listening experience, locating us in-between the self and the other. And the reverberating sounds of space in the museum, places us from our physical location to the museum, in-between here and there.
[1] Uknown author and date. Khalka headdress. Available: http://www.mcmanus.co.uk/content/collections/database/khalka-headdress. Last accessed 6th Feb 2017.
[2] “… as Ricoeur says, meaning or significance is already both perception and word.” Ihde, D. (2007). Listening and voice: Phenomenologies of sound. 2nd ed. Albany: State University of New York Press. P148
[3] Asenjo, F. G. (1988). In-between : an essay on categories, Center for Advanced Research in Phenomenology & University Press of America, Washington, D.C P139
In-between my reasoning and the real,
I hear the discrete and unrepeatable experiences of illumination.[1]
A soundscape in space-time with sweet gestures placed on my imagination.
Memories of old ambiance upon new ambulation.
In-between my head and the sonic,
I receive the distance perceived as a separation from over-there.[2]
A fantasy world bound to subjective questionnaires.
Treasuries of old attention upon new intention.
In-between myself and the other,
I bridge an audible world where objectivity and subjectivity meet.[3]
A thing heard, not composed carrying the weight of an archived street.[4]
Subjectivity is an old demanding upon new attending.
In-between my silence and the absent,
I listen to a formless stream, emanating from a boundless space.
A walk will allow the appropriate sounds to appear in place.
Accessories urging old emotions upon new happenings.
In-between my space and the sound,
I see a place as the symbol and the sound as the meaning.[5]
A form of feeling adds something unique to my perception of dreaming.
Histories of old feelings upon new feelings
“Leading us in-between the in-betweens…”[6]
[1] Casey, E.S. 2002, Representing place: Landscape painting and maps. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. P76
[2] Voegelin, S. 2010, Listening to noise and silence: Towards a philosophy of sound art. New York: Continuum International Publishing Group. P5
[3] “Listening to sound is where objectivity and subjectivity meet: in the experience of our own generative perception we produce the objectivity from our own generative perception we produce the objectivity from our subjective and particular position of listening, which in turn is constituted by the objectivity of the object of a prior movement of hearing, subjective and particular.” Voegelin, S. 2010, Listening to noise and silence: Towards a philosophy of sound art. New York: Continuum International Publishing Group. P14
[4] Voegelin, S. 2010, Listening to noise and silence: Towards a philosophy of sound art. New York: Continuum International Publishing Group. P23
[5] “Thus for the poet in his ecstasy- or perhaps, agony- of the composition the trees are the symbols and the words are the meaning. He concentrates on the trees in order to get the words.” A.N Whitehead 1985. Symbolism: Its Meaning and Effect. New York: Fordham University Press. P12.
[6] Asenjo, F. G 1988, In-between : an essay on categories, Center for Advanced Research in Phenomenology & University Press of America, Washington, D.C P139
THE ARTFUL DONDER 