Active Listening

The process of active listening involves someone paying greater attention to their auditory environment than they normally would. Sound, like any other stimuli can be phased out by our minds. Active listening causes us to pay closer attention to the details we may normally not acknowledge. The experience is deep and also hard to maintain, as the act of “listening” may involve focusing on one thing. I found in my experience that it was hard to take in an entire environment; it was easier to focus on one sound at a time in my environment. I went to various places in the Wilson building and picked up sounds I normally ignore. There were many droning, long noises (such as the air conditioner, fans, the hum of a vending machine, the fan of a CPU) that overlapped to create white noise. There were also footsteps, metal clangs and door slams that were rare, but added variety to the sound environment. 

We were then to create our own sound environment using the sounds we experienced. I initially took a more musical approach, using a drum loop and atmospheric noise to emulate the mood I felt in the sound environment. The metal clangs again add variety to the composition. I also added noises directly from the environment (door slam, footsteps, etc.) I felt that combining the noises with rhythmic and tonal compliments helped create a better mood and atmosphere to the piece. The rhythmic and tonal qualities draw the listener in because they are familiar, the noises tell the actual story.