Deep Listening

February 2019 Issue

Composer Pauline Oliveros' concept of Deep Listening defines a way of relating to the world. Initially intended to guide musicians into greater awareness and responsiveness to their environments, the term soon developed much further. To encompass more than a musical practice, more than an aesthetic, becoming a kind of philosophy. As one of our key senses -- of communication, of spatial perception, of defining atmosphere of place -- in a world increasingly awash in noise, we could perhaps all stand to listen more closely to the fine details that surround us. And to see what we may learn from them. Films in this program approach sound in many different ways: as vector of information, as means interrelation and connection, as cultural creation, as organizing structure for narrative and motion, as the very fabric of day to day reality. It's been said that film, for all that it may be considered a visual medium, may be more reliant on sound for its overall effect. So listen closely.