SONIC KNOWLEDGE

Sonic knowledge as a sound artist is a crucial way of knowing. To know and understand through sound is to be deeply informed. Writing about a sonic process is such an interesting thought in itself. Can writing be a form of recording sonically? If I were to describe a sound to you, subconsciously do you hear that sound I am speaking of? If I were to describe a landscape can you hear that landscape? Sonic knowledge is an integral part of understanding how to write this methodology, and practitioners such as Pauline Oliveros speak and understand sound so beautifully. I focus on Pauline’s work throughout this blog post, practicing for myself her work to see what comes up for me. By trailing and experiencing Pauline’s work I hope to find positive influence of a sound art practitioner to inform my methodology. I know that Pauline has done much work on collective participation and group exercises, this is something that I will take influence on in the second semester where I hope to expand this methodology and create an event for people to come and trial it collectively with me.

Pauline Oliveros was in my view one of the most influential pioneers within the sound art practice. She explored understandings and meaning in whole new ways and wrote with such elegance and accessibility. I first came to read one of Pauline’s practices ‘The Earth Worm Also Sings: A Composer’s Practice of Deep Listening’ around 2 years ago. Instantly I became captivated by the statements she was making within the piece to quote her “the rhythms of my bodily life encoded in the theatre of my mother womb I listened from the beginning”. Before Oliveros I had never heard any speak about sound in such way with such a deep understanding of it. That’s when I read quantum listening. This book along with others such as Mark Peter Wrights book Listening after nature guided me into the practice I am in today. Without these mind expanding questions I don’t know what I would be making if they hadn’t encouraged me to think alternatively.

Something about Oliveros’s practice that I think I will find quite influential not only now but when I carry on further with this project is her push for group practice. Something that keeps coming up within writing the essay and experimenting with the methodology is the need for group participation. As me writing and experiencing this methodology is only my experience – the more I have been looking into Pauline’s work and the more writing I’m doing I’m realising that I need to share this methodology and see how others experience it. This also goes into my idea to carry the project on. In the second part of this unit, I want to practice this methodology in an event where people come and trail the methodology out with me – give me their responses and so forth.

This book delves in the history of Pauline Oliveros’ work and centres on what she coined as quantum listening and deep listening. I focus on deep listening. Some quotes throughout the book that stood out are:

Deep listening represents a heightened state of awareness and connects to all that is there

Listen to everything all the time and remind yourself when you are not listening 

The more I listen the more I learn to listen

Inclusiveness is essential to the process of unlocking layer after layer of imagination, meaning and memory down to the cellular level of human experience

The quantum listener listens to listening 

The skin listens too

Listening with the palms of the hands

As I listen I remember

Sonic mediations were to enable people to have significant experiences with sound in a communal way

Can you imagine listening beyond the edge of your own imagination

sonic meditations

I really like these quotes and questions. I like the way the questions are presented, this is a way in which I want to write my methodology. Alongside instructions, I want to propose open-ended questions for the experiencer.

When looking into what Pauline coined as deep listening, which consist to listening to everything all at once, I started to think about how I could apply it to my methodology. Although listening is an integral part of this practice – what I think sounds more fitting is deep-experiencing. Listening and experiencing with every sense at the same time. Weather that’s smell, touch, taste, voice, thought, sight and experiencing through the soul. Pauline talks about “listening in every possible way, to everything it’s possible to hear. How about a multisensory deep-experiencing to enable a connection to the more than human participants in order to create an ‘open channel’ for collaboration.

Some exercised out of Paulines Deep Listening: A Composer’s Sound Practice that I thought were useful to read for influence for my methodology :

Palms of Hands 

Rub the palms of the hands together vigorously to make them very warm and to energize the nerve endings. 

Hold the palms a little apart and parallel in front of you and sense the energy field* between them as if you were holding a sphere or ball. Your hands maybe close together or further apart to perceive the effect.
Massage this ball of energy and gradually bring the palms of your hands to a folded position just under your navel. (Men place left hand under right hand, women right 

hand under left hand).52 

Receive the warmth from your palms into this lower body center (dan t’ien)53 If you don’t feel the subtle tingling sensations, your energy may be blocked by stiff shoulders or other tensions elsewhere in the body. Breathe deeply to release the tension and continue to sense the palms of your hands. 

Soles of Feet 

The soles of the feet are your connection to earth (even through the floor). The sole 

is sensitive with many nerve endings and connections to the inner organs.54 As you stand, allow energy to flow to the soles of the feet.
Soften the knees and grip the earth.
Follow the sensations that return from the soles of the feet throughout the body. As you grip the earth with the soles of your feet, there is a reaction force—a return of energy from the earth. This reaction force can give you a feeling of strength. By bringing 

attention to the soles of the feet,55 energy can be raised in the body. The reaction force of gripping the earth with the feet in natural stance can help to promote circulation in the body. 

Listening Journal The Exercise 

After the listening exercise, describe your experience in writing in a notebook that you keep for this purpose. Give your experience a title. Notice your feelings about your experience and record them. Of course, writing can be replaced by another means of recording to suit your needs (e.g. Tape).
How to Use Your Journal 

Your journal should be private, like your own room. This journal is a place to write, graph, add collage, or draw whatever you would like to record. There is no need for anyone else to look at your journal unless you decide that you want to share a part of it or all of it. Your journal is your sanctuary for your listening experiences. Through journaling over time, your experiences in relation to one another accumulate meaning. 

Experiences come and go. Some experiences stay with us easily and others disappear quickly. Some experiences pop into mind at odd times like dreams or flashes/visions. Keeping a journal with descriptions and reminders of immediate experiences, memories and your imagination of sounds, can be surprising and rewarding. Recording your experiences can help the development of your memory and imagination for sounds (and silences). 

I like others find silences confrontational – its exposing and awakward Theres a beaty within confrontation that provokes feeling sensationannd throught I want to focus on this -are tou hearing your bhody closer ? are you undertsanidng you surrounding deeper ? 

Earth: Sensing/Listening/Sounding (1992) 

by Pauline Oliveros
Make a circle with a group. Lie on the ground or floor on your back with your head towards the center of the room.
Can you imagine letting go of anything that you don’t need?
As you feel the support of the ground or floor underneath, can you imagine sensing the weight of your body as it subtly shifts in response to the pull of gravity?
Can you imagine sensing the subtlest vibrations of the ground or floor that is supporting you?
Can you imagine your body merging with the ground or floor? 

Can you imagine listening to all that is sounding as if your body were the whole earth? There might be the sounds of your own thoughts or of your body, natural sounds of birds or animals, voices, sounds of electrical appliances and machines. Some sounds might be very faint, some very intense, some continuous, and some intermittent. As you are listening globally, can you imagine that you can use any sound that you hear as a cue either to relax your body more deeply or to energize it? 

As you sense the results of this exercise, can you imagine including more and more of the whole field of sound in your listening? (Near sounds, far sounds, internal sounds, remembered sounds, imagined sounds.) 

As you become more and more able to use any sound, whether faint, ordinary or intense to relax or energize the body, can you imagine becoming increasingly aware of all the sounds possible to hear in any moment?
Can you imagine allowing yourself to express the sound of your breath as you continue your global listening and deeper breathing?
Can you imagine expressing any sound that comes naturally with your voice?
Can you imagine continuing this Sonic Meditation by sensing, listening, breathing and sounding? 

Can you imagine that you are sound?