In todays lesson we collectively had a discussion about how we felt that the course was going, and specifically the introduction to sound arts element. We also spent time critiquing sound arts works.

My follow up task for this week was to write about the differences between the terms listening and hearing, how they function to me and how I encounter each practice in my day to day life and at sound specific events such as gigs, or exhibition works etc, etc.

I’ll begin with hearing as, in my understanding and opinion, it is the more shallow practice of the two, not to undermine its importance in the world, but I think that hearing is the more common practice and is often taken for granted. To ‘hear’ implies that there is no true subject whilst listening, you hear whatever is going on and it is placed into a soundscape. Hearing is often seen as listening, but with less concentration and focus, and perhaps less intent to understand the sounds being heard. (I would also refer to hearing as ‘passive listening’ for reference.)

Listening on the other hand, is a focused practice. I believe that whilst you listen, you actively try to identify things such as keynotes; with hearing this is the contrary. I would also argue that listening could also be labelled as ‘active listening’ or ‘deep listening’ the opposite of ‘passive listening’. Listening demands a level of concentration in order to be able to identify the source of a sound, the historical, contemporary or social importance of a sound or the intention of a sound.