As someone who works from home, while living with six
people, it is safe to say that sound is something I am often challenged with.
This assignment was incredibly stimulating for me because I would never (unless
prompted by my Media class) sit down for an hour and just listen to what I
would call ‘dead air’. Born and raised in the city makes us all exceedingly
insensitive to the things we hear, and even the things we see- since we hear
and see so much at such a fast pace. The hardest part of this assignment,
besides of course sitting down for an hour with no motive, was having to choose
where to go. Of course I naturally wanted to choose an environment that would
be the most interesting to write about like Times Square but then I remembered
that something I want to get out of this assignment is a change in perspective,
so I chose to sit in my living room for an hour. As I mentioned I live with my
family, which consists if six unforgivingly loud people, two cats, and one
really curious Beagle.
I decided to sit down on the couch at the crossroads of the
apartment (the living room) during peak hours (5pm).
I grabbed water and just sat.
And sat.
And sat.
This was by far the longest hour I’ve ever endured (College
hours included!)
As time went on I remember thinking about how many different
sounds create the comforting home I am so used to. My nephew playing video
games, my mother watching re-runs of her favorite TV narrative, my sister and
her husband laughing in their own space, my dog playing with his favorite toys...
so many different sounds that had so many different meanings. It made me
realize that my apartment was a mix of many different textures, many different
emotions and many different voices and it created what I believe to be a
collage of emotion for me, as it never had before. I thought about what makes this specific
space, in this very large city so special to me personally and then I was
reminded of the answer with every single small sound I would hear.
I went into
this believing that listening to dead air was going to be a grueling task and
although I probably would not voluntarily do it again I can honestly say that
this task make me realize that no air is dead- there is always something to
appreciate if you just listen.
