What
is silence? What is heard? How does the soundscape shape the space?
Artist Janis Bowley has created the Silent Spaces experiment for
Lincoln, UK - an opportunity to explore selected public soundscapes
and find stillness, listen for silence. Enhance your hearing sense
and find the Silent Spaces - discover for yourself.
Twelve
sites in Lincoln have been chosen for their significance to various
ideas of silence. It is an experiment in personal listening
experiences in public places.
Silence
can be defined as the brightening of our hearing sense - an
experience of the physical and mental spaces between things, the
action of becoming still to observe what is happening in this place,
at this time. Take note, the silence of the place may take time to be
heard.
This
project expands cultural assumptions of silence as being 'an absence
of sound'. The experiment prompts finding silence in places for pause
and reflection, spaces of contrasts and changes, places evoking the
past and future while anchoring the present moment. There is watery
quiet, noise, silence under open sky, beneath trees, and in stone.
This
an opportunity to briefly let go of ordinary time through acoustics.
And, significantly, to notice nature even in the city.
Silent
Spaces is an experiment in listening and how this may enliven our
curiosity about what surrounds us. In addition to focusing hearing,
you may find your other senses enhanced. Consider the opportunities
for creative responses - sketch the noise, record the sound of
silence, photograph the acoustics, make a written response.
This
project follows 'Sydney Silent Places', Sydney Australia 1997, which
Bowley conducted with University of NSW students, and is inspired by
'The Nerima Silent Places Contest', Tokyo
The Map and Sites Details can be downloaded from the links under the 'Map & Key' tab
Silent Spaces for Lincoln will be permanently available via this website, and is the work of Janis Bowley, no aspect of the project can be used without permission.
The Map and Sites Details can be downloaded from the links under the 'Map & Key' tab
Silent Spaces for Lincoln will be permanently available via this website, and is the work of Janis Bowley, no aspect of the project can be used without permission.
Contact:
backlabworks@gmail.com
References:
David
Abram, 'The Spell of the Sensuous', Vintage Books, 1996
Jon
Kabat-Zinn, 'Coming to Our Senses', Hachette Books, 2006
Christopher
Alexander, Sara Ishikawa and Murray Silverstei 'A Pattern Language',
Oxford University Press, 1977
Keiko
Torigoe, Tokyo (Nerima) Silent Places Contest, Sacred Heart
University, 1991
Richard Chambers & Craig Hassed, Health Sciences, Monash University (Melbourne) Australia