Un entendimiento mejor de 4’33”

Recientemente, he estado trabajado en un ensayo para mi clase de la historia musical del siglo XX. Tuvimos la libertad de escoger nuestros propios temas por este ensayo, y elegí escribir sobre la composición de John Cage que se llama 4’33”. En toda mi vida, especialmente en mis clases de la música en la preparatoria, la idea de esta composición me parecía como una broma. Sin embargo, esto no era mi culpa. Incluso mis maestros me decían que la composición les parecía muy rara, y por eso, estaba de acuerdo con ellos hasta que aprendí como escuchar.

Recently, I have been working on an essay for my 20th century music history class. We had the opportunity to choose our own topics for this essay, and I choose to write about John Cage’s composition titled 4’33”. Throughout my entire life, especially in my high school music classes, the idea of this composition seemed like a joke to me. However, this wasn’t necessarily my fault. Even my teachers used to tell me that the composition seemed really weird to them, and because of that, I agreed with them until I learned how to listen.

La cosa más fascinante sobre esta composición es que fue inspirada por el uso excesivo de música de la fonda (en ingles, se llama “background music”) en los 1940s y 50s. The Muzak Company estaba transmitiendo música adentro de restaurantes, casas, oficinas, aviones, autobuses, y básicamente cualquier lugar público imaginable. A Cage, él pensaba que el mundo debería aprender a apreciar los sonidos non-musicales. Creía que no había necesidad de llenar cada lugar público con la música y que hacerlo era una atrocidad y una violación grave de los derechos humanos básicos.

The most interesting thing about this piece is that it was inspired by the excessive use of background music in the 1940s and 50s. The Muzak Company was broadcasting music into restaurantes, houses, offices, planes, buses, and basically any imaginable public place. Cage thought that the world should learn how to appreciate non-musical sounds. He believed that it wasn’t necessary to fill every public place with music and that to do so was an atrocity and a serious violation of basic human rights.

Aunque esto era la meta de esta composición, la recepción pública fue muy mal. No entendían el mensaje de Cage sobre los sonidos del mundo, y le pareció a la audiencia como un acto llamativo. En realidad, la meta de Cage era enfatizar la presencia constante del sonido. Incluso cuando no escuchamos a la música, estamos rodeados de varios sonidos: el viento, las aviones, la risa, etcetera. Cage sabía que después de las guerras, el mundo estaba empezando a ahogar muchas ideas y culturas, y por eso, él sabía que también estaba empezando a ahogar sus sonidos. A Cage, la música significaba la cultura, la idea, el pensamiento, la palabra — no solo las notas que se tocan por los músicos que vemos en el escenario.

Although this was the goal of his composition, public reception of the piece was really bad. The audience didn’t understand Cage’s message about the sounds of the world, and to them, the piece seemed like a mere flamboyant act. In reality, Cage’s goal was to emphasize the constant presence of sound. Even when we aren’t listening to music, we are surrounded by various sounds: the wind, planes, laughter, etc. Cage knew that, after the wars, the world was starting to drown out many idas and cultures, and because of that, he know that the world was also starting to drown out their sounds. To Cage, music meant cultures, ideas, thoughts, words — not just the notes that are played by the musicians that we see on the stage.

Si esta composición no hubiera sido presentado al mundo en 1952, ¿quién sabe como sería la sociedad hoy? ¿Nos importarían los sonidos además de la música en absoluto? Estoy agradecido de que Cage compuso 4’33” e hizo esa declaración filosófica porque yo veo la importancia y el valor del escuchar, y sé que es mi deber continuar la misión de Cage.

If this composition hadn’t been presented to the world in 1952, who knows how society would be today? Would we care about sounds besides music at all? I am thankful that cage composed 4’33” and made this philosophical statement because I see the importance and the value of listening, and I know that it is my duty to continue Cage’s mission.

Herberger Institute of the Arts Day 2019

En el 24 de octubre, 2019, el laboratorio acústico dirigió un taller sobre los sonidos del desierto Sonoran. Lo planeamos algunas semanas por adelanto, y afortunadamente, todos los participantes les gustó al fin. Aunque la mayoridad de nosotros nos sentimos un poco incómodos al principio, la discusión que tuvimos al fin del taller probó que hicimos un real impacto en cada persona allí.

On October 24th, 2019, the acoustic ecology lab lead a workshop about the sounds of the Sonoran desert. We planned it a few weeks in advance, and fortunately, all of the participants were pleased in the end. Although the majority of us felt a little uncomfortable at first, the discussion that we had at the end proved that we made a real impact on each person there.

Empezamos con una introducción muy breve sobre la identidad del laboratorio, y Derek dirigió una actividad donde cada persona hizo un movimiento en su propio cuerpo para hacer un sonido que se introdujo. Fue muy interesante ver los tipos de movimientos que hizo cada persona. Nadie me pareció tan incómodo con esto.

We started with a very brief introduction about who we are, and Derek lead an activity where each person made a movement on their own bodies in order to make a sound that introduced them. It was really interesting to see the types of movements that each person made. Nobody seemed too uncomfortable with this.

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Una foto que tomé en febrero de 2019 en las montañas Superstitions / A photo I took in February 2019 in the Superstition Mountains

Después de la introducción, empezamos la próxima actividad. Entonces, había siete estaciones donde los participantes podían improvisar con la voz y los varios instrumentes “naturales” que proporcionamos, como piedras, palos, frijoles, hojas, papel, y más. Cada estación se dedicó a un tipo de sonido específico: tuvimos estaciones por biofonía, geofonía, y antrofonía (las otras estaciones fueron dedicadas a relajar y enfocar en los sonidos que los otros participantes estaban haciendo).

After the introduction, we started the next activity. At this point, there were seven stations where the participants could improvise with their voices or the various “natural” instruments that we provided, like stones, sticks, beans, leaves, paper, and more. Each station was dedicated to a specific type of sound: we had stations for biophony, geophony, and anthrophony (the other stations were dedicated for relaxing and focusing on the sounds that the other participants were making).

Al principio, casi nadie estaba muy entusiasta con esta actividad, pero cuando todos nosotros nos damos cuento que estábamos haciendo una conversación profunda entre los distintos grupos, algo mágico pasó. La comunicación entre los grupos fue asombrosa, y finalmente estábamos creando la escena acústica de una tormenta de lluvia en el desierto. Algunas personas estaban haciendo el sonido de la lluvia, otros el sonido del trueno, otros las aves, otros los insectos, y de repente el teatro realmente empezó sonar como si estuviéramos en el desierto Sonoran.

At first, few people appeared to be enthusiastic about the activity, but when we all realized that we were having a deep conversation between the different groups, something magical happened. The communication between the groups was amazing, and eventually we were creating the acoustic scene of a rainstorm in the desert. Some people were making the sounds of the rain, some the sounds of the thunder, the birds, the insects, and suddenly the theater really started to sound as if we were in the Sonoran desert.

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Una foto que tomé en agosto de 2018 en St. David, AZ / A photo that I took in August 2018 in St. David, AZ

 

Al fin del taller, hicimos una actividad que yo dirigí donde todos los participantes se formaron un túnel, y todos nosotros usaban cualquier forma de hacer sonido que pudiéramos para imitar la ecología acústica del desierto Sonoran. Mientras estábamos creando este mundo sonoro, cada participante tuvo la oportunidad de caminar por el túnel y experimentar la mágica del sonido imaginativo. Esta actividad me gustó mucho, y creo que fue muy exitosa. En general, HIDA Day fue un éxito real, y ¡me alegro que el laboratorio tuvo la oportunidad de hacerlo otra vez!

At the end of the workshop, we did an activity that I lead where all of the participants formed a tunnel, and we all used any form of making sound that we could to imitate the acoustic ecology of the Sonoran desert. While we were creating this sonic world, each participant had the opportunity to walk through the tunnel and experience the magic of imaginative sound. I liked this activity a lot, and I think that it was quite successful. Overall, HIDA Day was a real success, and I’m glad that the lab had the opportunity to partake in it again!

¿Por qué es tan normal distraernos siempre?

En nuestro último paseo del sonido, Anne-Marie y yo nos dimos cuenta de que mucha gente nos da miradas raras cuando caminamos por el campus sin hablar, sin hacer ruido. No tratamos de ganar atención, pero por alguna razón, la falta de sonido entre un grupo de personas hace que la gente se sienta incómoda. Aún cuando hay una falta de conversación, la gente usualmente recurre al distraerle con sus celulares, mirando a redes sociales o aún fingiendo que sí tienen cosas importantes de las que preocuparles.

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Cuando nos dimos cuenta que era prácticamente imposible movernos a través de un espacio así sin recibir miradas raras, nos puso un poco frustrados. ¿Por qué es más aceptado distraerse constantemente con nuestros celulares, con nuestra música (gracias a los AirPods), y con millones de otras cosas que simplemente parar y escuchar? Por qué soy el extraño si no tengo mi celular en mano en cualquier momento que no estoy hablando con alguien o estoy sólo en público?

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Me gusta preguntarme cómo sería el mundo si a la gente le gustara escucharlo. ¿Daríamos cuenta mejor a nuestros alrededores? ¿Escucharíamos mejor a nuestros amigos? ¿Nos sentiríamos más conectados al mundo y nuestros hábitats e ecologías? Creo que probablamente sí. Cada vez que Anne-Marie y yo lideramos un paseo del sonido, notamos algo increíble — ya sea es un músico tocando por casualidad o es el fuerte sonido del trueno antes de que comience una tormenta. Sin importar lo que notamos, siempre hace que me sienta más conectado al mundo — un gran sentimiento con el cual finalizar el día.

Paseos de Sonido y El Movimiento

Recientemente, Garth me envió un enlace de una entrevista entre dos personas que estaban hablando sobre paseos de sonido: lo que significa caminar, escuchar, y hacer una combinación de los dos. El científico del sonido, Steven Feld, tiene una perspectiva muy profunda del movimiento, y cree que es la cosa más importante para entenderlo. Como explica al entrevistador, Carlos Palombini, el paseo de sonido se lleva a cabo en la cabeza y el cuerpo, en la manera de escuchar, en la atención al campo de sonido que nos rodea. Además, dice que aunque sí nos movemos a través del espacio durante un paseo de sonido, lo que lo convierte en un paseo de sonido es nuestro cambio de atención. Como ya sabemos, el sonido es algo que solamente ocurre en la mente. En otras palabras, creamos todos los sonidos que oímos basado en nuestras experiencias, recuerdos, emociones, educaciones, culturas, y mucho más. De hecho, Steven Feld nota que su historia de escuchar y aprender a escuchar, durante los últimos 25 años — básicamente, sus últimos 25 años de vivir y ser humano — le han ayudado mucho en desarrollar su habilidad de experimentar el mundo sonoro.

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Aún así, Feld dice que incluso cuando nos quedamos quietos, el sonido todavía tiene una fundación basado en el movimiento. Las ondas sonoras empujan el polvo que está en el aire y todas las partículas que no podemos ver para darnos una idea del estado actual del mundo que nos rodea. Recuerdo que Garth me ha dicho en el pasado que escuchar es una experiencia encarnada, porque cuando recordamos un sonido que nos gusta (o que no nos gusta), el recuerdo nos da más información que sólo el sonido que escuchamos. También nos da información sobre el olor, los colores, las luces, y como nos sentimos en el momento. Cuando sonidos entran nuestras orejas, ya están a cargo del estado actual del mundo, dándonos información en un nivel más profundo que podemos entender ahora.

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Lo que tratan de hacer los científicos de sonidos como Steven Feld, las ecologistas, y los artistas es difundir el conocimiento la importancia del sonido con el resto del mundo. La esperanza es que este conocimiento aumente el nivel al que la naturaleza (animales, montañas, ríos, árboles, insectos, y desiertos) le importa a la gente. Con tiempo y más personas como Steven Feld, ¡estoy seguro que el mundo puede cambiar y empezar a escuchar más!

“Innovation Happens @ ASU” Podcast

On May 13, 2019, Anne-Marie Shaver and I were interviewed by Maggie Dellow and Jonah Hrkal at the Fulton Center on the ASU Tempe campus for the “Innovation Happens @ ASU” podcast, a program that highlights the different groundbreaking projects that are going on within the university. After Jonah participated in a soundwalk with us a few months ago, he decided that the Acoustic Ecology Lab was an example of exactly the type of innovation that he thought was representative of ASU.

Over the course of our hour-long recording session, we were asked an array of truly thought-provoking questions – some of which initiated some nostalgic reflection on the year-and-a-half that Anne-Marie and I have been leading weekly soundwalks. What had we accomplished since we started? Something I know that we are both proud of is that through our weekly soundwalks, we have helped give people some listening tools that enable them hear past the buzzes, chimes, and rings everyday life, shifting their attention toward sounds that they had perhaps unnoticed.

We are also proud of the variety of people that we have been able to impact through our Soundwalk program and connections through the Acoustic Ecology Lab, such as the Speech and Hearing Clinic with Dr. Aparna Rao, the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication, the McDowell Sonoran Preserve, among others. One of the fundamental principles of soundwalking is to include anyone and everyone who is interested, so the fact that we have been able to reach out to so many people and organizations is something we are really happy about.

In fact, one of Anne-Marie’s answers to a question we were asked brilliantly encapsulated why we think that our work in the Lab is meaningful and innovative. She said (and I paraphrase), “We know that we aren’t the first ones to do this… For millennia, sounds had always been important and essential to certain indigenous populations in order to survive. I think what makes our work special is that we are taking these ancient listening practices and we are finding ways to apply them to our current situation, in a way that is relatable and approachable to anyone and everyone. ”

I couldn’t agree with Anne-Marie more. Although everything we do in the Lab is in some way or another related to sound in a general way, every project that we work on is specifically catered for a certain goal in mind. With marvelous projects like Kyle Hoefer’s gunshot detection project in Costa Rica in December 2018, for example, Anne-Marie and I were able to confidently say that the Acoustic Ecology Lab is a brilliant example of innovation happening at ASU.

Soundwalks and Friendship

Recently, Anne-Marie Shaver and I were interviewed for a radio session that an ASU student from the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism is working on. The interview lasted about forty-five minutes, and we were asked a wide array of thought-provoking questions, ranging from how sound can give us clues about the ecological changes occurring in our environment, to how leading weekly soundwalks has expanded our perspective on sound. Before this interview, I don’t think either Anne-Marie or I had introspected this deeply, or considered the long-term personal effects that leading soundwalks has had on us over the past year. When we were asked what we had learned since we’ve started, a flood of emotions, memories, and ideas overpowered me. I couldn’t decide what to say in response, or what was even relevant for the interview. The first thing that I said, though, was that I felt more connected to Anne-Marie.

I suppose it’s the common knowledge that we share that has made me feel this way, or perhaps it’s just because she’s a kind, fun, thoughtful person who I enjoy spending time with. Realistically, though, it’s a combination of both of these things. There are plenty of other examples where people have become close friends due to a shared experience, like being on Survivor or participating in Drum Corps. Soundwalking every week on the ASU Tempe campus, starting with a deep breath at the School of Music fountain, has been no different for us. The chirps, drips, scrapes, bangs, crashes, squeaks, twists, creaks, snaps, scratches, and thumps have all contributed to our understanding of this campus’ culture, environment, patterns, and beauty, but they have also given us a gift, in a certain sense. When I say “the bird tree” or “the echoic stairwell” or “the AC area”, Anne-Marie knows the exact place and sonic phenomenon that I’m referring to, and we can both immerse ourselves into our imaginations and recreate the experience together on command.

One way that this perceptual experience is shared and made more concrete is through the way that the information from soundwalking is archived and stored in our brains. I believe that soundwalking helps create something in our minds very similar to psychology’s concept of the “cognitive map” (https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/neuroscience/cognitive-map), but more focused on sonic qualities rather than visual ones. The cognitive map is the psychological faculty that allows us to visualize spaces and routes in our minds, making it easier to get around without directions and remember where to find things in our homes. I’m arguing that the sound-driven nature of soundwalks shifts our perception of the world around us in a way that emphasizes the sounds, or the acoustic ecologies of different spaces, rather than the visual qualities when creating our cognitive maps. This shift away from ocular-centrism begins to construct our cognitive maps in a unique way (most likely in a similar manner to the cognitive maps of blind people), where the signifiers for the locations we have visited are no longer shapes, colors, sizes, or designs, but rather pitches, volumes, timbres, and rhythms.

The point I’m making here is that people who share vivid visual cognitive maps often experience some degree of emotional connection, like a group of people seeing a firework show together, or watching the sun succumb to the horizon from a misty mountain peak; and in the same manner, people who share cognitive maps based on sound also share a certain degree of emotional connection – and perhaps even a deeper one. For Anne-Marie and me, our sound-based cognitive maps are essentially one-in-the-same for the ASU Tempe campus, and for that reason, my connection with the sounds of this campus and the beauty and diversity that they hold is directly linked to her. People who experience life in a different way, I have found, experience friendship and connection in a different way, and that’s something I’ll be forever grateful for. Join Anne-Marie and me on a soundwalk and experience this for yourself!

Hearing or Listening?

Psychoacoustic is key to out listening experience

This is a great article by George Massenburg that outlines the differences between hearing and listening: one “hears” with one’s brains, not only with one’s ears.

Hearing is the act of perceiving sound by the ear. Listening is a conscious mental process, as much about the brain as the ear, and it starts with establishing attention to a sound

Read the article here

Herberger Day (Institute for Design and Arts)

 

Yesterday, October 11th, 2018, was the Herberger Institute’s second annual “Herberger Day”, which featured dozens of workshops hosted from faculty and students from different fields like painting, ceramics, music, dance, design, and acting. One of the best parts about this event is that Herberger students are given the opportunity to participate in workshops that may be completely outside their comfort zone, but broaden their perspective on the unlimited number of possibilities that the arts possess.

The Acoustic Ecology Lab hosted a workshop yesterday from 3-4 pm, titled “Listening and Creative Placemaking”, which featured a soundwalk led by Anne-Marie, a demonstration of our VR headsets led by Kyle and myself, and a poster presentation/discussion led by Jake. The goal of this workshop was to introduce people to the different ways that listening can make us more aware of our environment and help us to develop a deeper connection with ourselves, other people, and our planet.

We started the workshop with a short introduction from each member of the lab, and we swiftly shifted to an introduction to listening and a stationary listening exercise influenced by John Cage’s “4’33″”. Right off the bat, everyone in the audience was intrigued by how many sounds we were able to hear in the room we were in, including orchestral music sneaking its way through a wall to our right, a vehicle’s brakes making their way through the glass windows to our left, and the sounds of human movement reverberating in the concrete hallway outside of our room. One participant’s comments on the listening exercise included a remark on how the sounds coming from the hallway have him clues as to how large the hallway was and what kind of surfaces it was made of (tile and concrete). I thought this comment was particularly interesting because for many people, these types of clues are difficult to derive during someone’s first time deeply listening.

After the stationary listening exercise, we split our participants into two groups — one went with Anne-Marie on her preplanned soundwalk, and the other group stayed in the room that we were in and took turns remotely listening to different acoustic ecologies, via our VR headsets (two new Oculus Rifts and one with a Samsung phone). Everyone was highly impressed with our VR captures and expressed feelings of relaxation and calmness after using the headsets. After everyone had gotten time remotely listening and talking to Jake about our poster, we switched the groups and had the other half of our participants interact with the headsets. The results were almost the exact same for both groups — a feeling of excitement, calmness, and awe after each person returned to “reality”.

For our closing speech, Anne-Marie led a short recap of the different activities that everyone was able to experience and got a few more comments from the audience about what they learned about listening, soundwalking, and their thoughts on using virtual reality to remotely listen. Overall, the feedback was overwhelmingly positive, and many people were eager to learn more about what we do in the lab and how they could potentially get involved. I had some business cards with me for the Soundwalk program, and by the end of the event, I had none left! All-in-all, yesterday was yet another proudly successful day for the lab, and we are excited to continue onward.

 

 

ILERo update 2

ILERo has been set up and finished for the first iteration of development. Several people have visited ILERo and checked out its acoustic and visual opportunities. The room was even moved from its regular place to the foyer of Ansbach University for a presentation of a group of governmental politicians and international guests to show research work going on at Ansbach University. Below are some pictures presenting the room, visitors and guests.

Guest students of Ansbach International Summer School experiencing recordings of Bird Island/ Altmühlsee in May 2018.

 

An academic delegation of Tongji University, Shanghai, China, visiting ILERo and experiencing recordings of Arizona desert. ILERo was at that time set up in the foyer of the main building of Ansbach University in June 2018.

We are very happy about the many positive feedbacks we got – not only from academic partners but also from employees of the University’s administration who strongly recommended to have an ILERo for short times of relaxation close by in order to feel more fresh and powerful for daily work.

 

ILERo is now ready to start with empirical work. First rough experiments have been done in August. We are on our way to plan and do more detailed studies.