10 second soundscapes
A practice in paying attention!
Embracing an age which capitalises on shortened attention spans makes deeper listening a challenge…
Shallow metrics and the relentless swipe/scroll culture of today have changed the way we connect with art, music and ultimately each other. The tracking of our habits, profile and presence across social media platforms form patterns programmed to create seemingly infinite trails of continuous content capable of harnessing the hyper-addictive feeling of reaching, connecting and engaging with other creators, consumers and enthusiasts. It’s a phenomena of the digital age in which we find ourselves.
If we are to acclimatise and adapt to this ever quickening processing pace, to digest healthily from this saturated consumption, it seems imperative that we stay mindful of the sugar-coated lure of sponsored content and advertising. I’m not hating on those who engage with these models, I’m sure some freebies and an extra income supported by endorsements would make anyone’s life a little easier in places… but it doesn’t help us on our path to discovering what it truly means to create, connect and contemplate. To slow down and listen deeply.
↪ There’s a really wonderful article published this week by
which highlights this in much more detail and is well worth reading :
As I type, I’m listening to a Spotify playlist titled Piano for Healing. I’ve tuned in to a feeling I wish to loop continuously until I close down my screen and sleep. The artist, the production, the composition - I’m not aware of their presence. I’m still listening, I’m just not engaging. I’m using sound as a tool to put me in a certain frame of mind. A kind of hypnosis set to channel into a creative state that facilitates my writing.
Perhaps though this is something music has evolved to become in this modern age? A souped up reincarnation of Muzak - a marketable music that doesn’t allow anyone to feel much of anything, a music without soul (La Muzak, Ou La Musique Sans Âme ) - which seeks refuge away from the spectacle and the raw fire of artistic expression and preaches a more target based approach to support the content it is pushing to the consumer.
Whilst guilty of inattentive listening myself, it is something that I try to consciously avoid in my personal practice - check out projects like Earth.fm and Longform Editions, both platforms which place a focus on deeper listening. I want to believe that there is a way to integrate deeper listening into the rapid-fire model of today’s listening trends. Inspired greatly by the work and teachings of the influential American composer Pauline Oliveros and her Deep Listening practices, we can learn a great deal about ourselves and our environments through engagement with a deeper listening practice.
Deep Listening, as developed by Pauline Oliveros, explores the difference between the involuntary nature of hearing and the conscious nature of listening. The practice includes bodywork, sonic meditations, and interactive performance, as well as listening to the sounds of daily life, nature, one’s own thoughts, imagination, and dreams. It cultivates a heightened awareness of the sonic environment, both external and internal, and promotes experimentation, improvisation, collaboration, playfulness, and other creative skills vital to personal and community growth. (The Centre for Deep Listening)
Here is a challenge for you to try out…
10 Second Soundscape
This practice does not necessarily need to finish with a form or a finished piece, though I would encourage you to try this out using your own recorded sounds and editing software.
Take a place. Make a series of recordings at different intervals using whatever material you have to hand. They can be anywhere from 1s - 10 minutes in length. Sequence them together to form a collage of sounds - a soundscape. Think about balance, how each sound compliments the next, the transition between and the duration of each sound. The only limitation being that the total length must be equal to exactly 10 seconds.
You may find that you hear things that you never noticed previously. You may feel something you didn’t feel whilst you were recording. You may think this is a complete waste of time! You may find a phrase or a sound that inspires you to create something further… there are no rules other than the time limit. It is an exercise designed to encourage you to listen more deeply, to peel back the layers and invite a different perspective.
“Of course, everyone is constrained in one way or another, and you work within your constraints. It doesn’t mean that suddenly the world is open, and we’re going to do much better music, because we’re not constrained in certain ways. We’re going to do different music because we’re not constrained in certain ways we operate under a different set of constraints.” - Brian Eno : “The Studio as Compositional Tool” (1983)
To give you some inspiration - here’s a 10 second soundscape I created from sounds I captured last weekend whilst passing through Paris…
I’d be fascinated to hear your interpretations and I invite you to share your soundscapes with me directly by mail - materichart(at)gmail.com - I’ve also set up a new subscriber chat below for those interested in contributing there too.
Enjoy your weekend. Take care!
Mat
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