Exploring the World With my Ears
Original Activity, Sonic Walk at Umass Boston:
For my sonic walk I decided to take the time to explore different parts of campus that I don’t usually go to. I thought I should do this because I’ve been noticing that I’m very caught up in my routines and I only go to the same 2 or 3 spots whenever I’m on campus.
As I left the class some of the sounds I noticed at first were the incessant beeping of the elevator and the sounds of professors talking in their classes. When I went outside I could hear a lot of wind and airplanes passing by overhead. I noticed that these sounds are particular to the UMB campus because we’re by the water and nearby the airport so planes pass over us frequently. Other than that I just heard passing conversations by other students and people hanging out outdoors.
So the building that I’m in least frequently is definitely McCormack. So I headed there and took the elevator to a random floor. I somehow ended up in the anthropology/history department. When I was there it was pretty quiet. I didn’t really hear much besides people typing away in their offices and a low humming sound that I couldnt identify where it was coming from. I could hear the sounds of my own feet walking around and as I was leaving I passed by the Interfaith center, where I heard people laughing and chatting.
After that, I went towards the cafeteria and of course heard a lot of laughing and chatter.
With this activity I just began to notice how much white noise surrounds me all the time. Even if its a quiet day nothing is really *quiet*. If you pay attention you can hear things that you may not notice on a day to day basis. It was nice to explore and to navigate campus through my ears rather than my eyes.
December 18, 2023 Reflection:
I think that actively engaging my hearing while exploring a familiar place really helped me become more aware of my surroundings. I wonder if I would be able to identify where I was if I was blindfolded and could only guess where I was by listening closely. There are some sounds that we become so accustomed to that we barely even notice them anymore but to outsiders, they may be glaringly obvious.
For example, I have a cat, so the sound of my cat scratching litter in her litter box is something that I’ve grown used to because I hear it constantly. However, when I had a friend over and they seemed scared and asked me what that sound was, I realized how disorienting it can be to hear something like the scratching of a litter box when you’re in a relaxed state, hanging out with a friend. It’s true that the sound is kind of weird and sometimes annoying, but I always just blocked it out. Having something that is so normal to me be called out by someone who it is not normal to reminds me of the fact that my experience is not synonymous with the rest of the world.
Actually, most of our experience in this world is completely unique to the body that we occupy. Think about it. Flies see the world differently than we do, to them the world is a kaleidoscope with colors that we probably don’t have the ability to perceive. I mean, the way that we see the world is flipped and upside down, so who’s to say how I hear is the right way? It’s all about perception! I think I’ll build on this observation in the future.
