First off, David makes a really compelling statement about how everything living thing in the world hears and experiences a different reality.
That is something I have never really thought of before. However, when he started to discuss how our ears have more nerves connecting to the brain than the eyes and how our ears can hear more than our eyes can see, it got me thinking about how I feel like my ears are never silent. When I go to bed at night I have to have some sort of white noise whether it be a fan or my TV. I can’t go to sleep without white noise because without it, it feels too silent, like an eerie silence where all I can hear is my thoughts and a constant humming in my ears.
Then, David went into talking a lot about nature and meditation. A lot of the things he said about nature and meditation, specifically, “ The sounds of living things are not just a resource for manipulation, they are evidence of mind in nature, and patterns of communication with which we share a common bond and meaning.” Reminds me a lot of Buddhist thought and teaching about having full awareness in nature. I remember learning in my Buddhism class that awareness was a very important aspect of enlightenment.
As for David’s work, I thought Mimus Polyglottos was really interesting in how he learned how to interact and communicate with an entirely different species. I know we basically do that with our pets, but something about how he learned how and when to communicate with the mockingbirds was really cool.
However, it made me sad when he was talking about hearing all of the man-made sounds when trying to capture soundscapes. It made me realize that that is now the reality we live in and experience everyday.
Trying to record something without man-made sounds is nearly impossible. It is sad, though, realizing that the peaceful sounds you imagine when thinking of an African waterhole doesn’t exist anymore.
