What we hear is an important part of any experience, yet one that's often overlooked. When you travel to a new place, whether you're paying attention or not, you're hearing sounds that are new and unusual to that particular place. A good exercise is to sit and listen for maybe 5 minutes, and pay attention to what those sounds are and simply write them down, just make a list. For me, some of those things were the clatter of cups and saucers in a Montreal cafe, or the crashing of waves, mixed with roosters on Kauai. In Istanbul it was the call to prayer 5 times a day. Each place has sounds unusal to your daily life, and reading your description later will bring you right back to that place in a way that a photograph never could. Travel is more than just seeing sights, it's the whole experience.
A few years ago I took a journal keeping class at RISD. One of the most interesting exercises we did in that class was to draw what we hear. We sat for 5 minutes and just listened, and then took out our supplies and tried to capture the sounds.
I also saw in one of my favorite journal keeping books by Hannah Hinchman, A Trail Through Leaves, something she does called sound tapestries. She does little sketches for sounds, and then sometimes puts them together.
Next time you're some place new, take out your journal and try to capture the things you're hearing. I'm sure you'll find yourself listening in a whole new way.
8 comments:
This is a beautiful post! You will find yourself opening up to the world in a whole new way!
What a great idea! Thanks for posting this!!
I took a workshop in college with an artist who played music while she worked and occasionally did work directly linked to the music, in that you could see the patterns and colors of the music in her wokr. She did letter over the backgrounds and the words always reacted to the music as well. her work was simply wonderful. She also did some work where she would paint and letter with the Bangor Symphony Orchestra behind her. Then she would create large scale books out of the resulting paintings. I can't remember her name but I loved her work. If I looked hard enough I'm sure I could find her name...
I read this this morning and have been trying to listen harder to what goes on around me all day. We miss much beauty in the SOUNDS around us because of the NOISE. It's worth separating them. Thanks, Kristin!
Very inspiring! Thank you for this wonderful idea.
What terrific ideas! :)
Very inspiring, indeed!
I love this, just a gorgeous idea!
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