Henriques, Julian. “The Auditory Culture Reader.” Edited by Michael Bull and Les Back. Sonic Dominance and the Reggae Sound System Session. Barthes, Roland. “Music Image Text.” The Grain of the Voice.
Paying attention to everyday sounds rather than moving through life with closed ears can provide significant insight to many aspects of life. It can allow a deeper observation and understanding of cultural norms, as well as give us insight into the workings of our own bodies and minds. An individual or culture can be observed in its most true nature by their preference of the types of sounds as well as the overall amount of sound in their life.
The gap between the sensation or auditory stimuli that the body takes in, and the perception of that stimuli the mind receives is known as the mind-body gap, and was illustrated in the Hudspeth reading. Two of the sounds I recorded of my everyday life serve as examples, or proof, of this dichotomy. The first, is a sound recording of eating lunch in the grundle. The background noise consisting of many private conversations can be heard as one overwhelming drone of sound, or the mind can choose to hone in on a specific aspect of that drone. If the mind were to focus on a single conversation, the noise of the others would cause only certain pieces of that conversation to be actually sensed by the body. However, the gap between sensation and perception would allow the mind to perceive the full conversation because the mind would be able to fill in any small gaps in the incoming stimuli. The other example of this effect is a sound recording of dinner at a nice restaraunt. At a first listen, the noise of plates being set down and utensils clinking can be heard over the background noise of people having conversations. However, if the mind is attuned to a specific background conversation, the mind can fill in most of the gaps that are not actually sensed, and make sense of the conversation. The mind-body gap, or the disconnect between sensation and perception is a vitally important phenomenon in sound studies as well as any psychological science.
The next four sounds are reflective of the differences in sound preference between collectivist and individualist culture. Individualist cultures tend to like progressive absence of sound in certain aspects of life whereas collectivist cultures tend to prefer a widening presence of noise. Although the U.S. is a highly individualist nation, many of my sound preferences reflect collectivist culture(I am uncomfortable in situations with little to no noise). One of the recordings is the sound of my pencil scratching on paper over the sound of classical music playing in the background to ease the mental tension of a near soundless environment. The next is the sound of my fan blowing at night, in order to make me comfortable enough to sleep. Similarly, the next is the sound of music inside my headphones in the gym, in order to keep me motivated. Lastly, the sound recording of the UVM symphony orchestra tuning is symbolic of a collectivist culture as well as a collectivist sound.
The seventh sound is a recording of a part of Eminem’s “Music Box”. For me, this verse exemplifies the “grain of the voice”, as discussed in Barthes’ article. The sharp, guttural tones made by mucus membranes and teeth in addition to the lungs are what make his words snap in your ears.
Two of the sound clips reflect ideas portrayed in the Schwartz reading. One of the clips is the sound of my longboard rolling over pavement, and the other is of my Keurig brewing a cup of coffee. The Schwartz explained how different sounds are regarded in drastically different ways in different cultures. The example he used was how the song of the cicadas was appreciated by certain greek philosophers because of how cicadas were regarded in their society, whereas others in different cultures despised the sound. These two sound clips exemplify sounds that I appreciate deeply because of their meaning in my culture and life.
The final sound clip is of an mp3 track being played in the shower. This reflects the ideas brought up in the Sterne article on mp3’s. The mp3 has a low level quality that would not be pleasant to the human ear, however the perceptive powers of the ear are able to supplement the track to make it detailed. The sound of the water over the track deteriorates the already sub-par quality of an mp3 track, however my ears are able to enhance the audio to a satisfactory level through perception.
In conclusion, the insight from the sounds we perceive in everyday life can provide great insight about the inner values of certain cultures as well as the workings of our own bodies.
