The difference between hearing and listening | Pauline Oliveros | TEDxIndianapolis

Sounds carry intelligence. If you are too narrow in your awareness of sounds, you are likely to be disconnected from your environment. Ears do not listen to sounds; the brain does. Listening is a lifetime practice that depends on accumulated experiences with sound; it can be focused to detail or open to the entire field of sound. Octogenarian composer and sound art pioneer Pauline Oliveros describes the sound experiment that led her to found an institute related to Deep Listening, and develop it as a theory relevant to music, psychology, and our collective quality of life.
Pauline is a composer and accordionist who significantly contributed to the development of electronic music. The culmination of her life-long fascination with music and sound is what inspired the practice of Deep Listening, the art of listening and responding to environmental conditions. As a Professor of Practice in the Arts Department at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, she produced highly regarded work as a composer and improviser. Pauline’s 1989 recording, Deep Listening, is considered a classic in her field.
This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at ted.com/tedx

[@lawrencevelogirl]

Rest in peace, Pauline. You'll always be an inspiration.

[@jjbaker]

4:16 "To hear is the physical means that enables perception, to listen is to give attention to what is perceived both acoustically and psychologically"

[@jakubrokita2261]

I first read about the "Deep Listening" album in post-soviet 90s Poland... There was no way to get the album, so we (me and friends) Imagined what that might sound like based on a survey article which held two paragraphs of summary about this album... fast forward to this century, Pauline's work reveals itself to me during academic research. Pure joy. Don't gatekeep. Share everything.

[@dAPERize]

I learned about Pauline in a class I am taking and plan to share her knowledge with my youngest students. Thank you for your work in this area.

[@FeonaLeeJones]

Pauline, you have no idea how many people you have influenced and inspired. Thank you for being such a powerful and receptive force in my music education. Your insights and guidance have forever change how we listen to music.

[@johnrakthai]

Feona Lee Jones how so? I just don’t see what the big deal is.

[@cheezewhiz7538]

@@johnrakthai a-hole she was an amazing composer

[@caseyfrensz5983]

You never fail to inspire me Pauline. I love listening to you speak and digesting your deep message. I miss you, and hope that our paths will cross again soon!

[@philipgelb967]

The person i so wish i could talk to and listen to in these insane times is Pauline. I miss her tremendously and think of her all the time. One of the most amazing human beings i have ever been fortunate to befriend!

[@tomvarner7943]

peace to you, Philip -- yes. And, sharing this with students today.

[@philipgelb967]

@@tomvarner7943 Than you Tom.

[@julianlange8132]

I cried instantly when I heard deep listening, idk why! Best ambience ive heard

[@joewhitt38]

A thrill to have worked/performed with you. Thank you for listening.

[@savaughndra]

This was beautiful on so many levels

[@erindonovan]

An incredible voice that we all need to listen to. Miss this amazing woman...

[@cyork1288]

wonderful...for several years in my electronic studio...I improved, no intended beat, or rhythm...but if you listened sometimes both would be there.

[@Kazilikaya]

I first learned your name as a 9-year-old back in the summer of 1988: I became interested in synthesizers and I found a record in my dad's collection called "New sounds in electronic music" featuring the masterpiece *I of IV*.

[@michaelwertz9856]

She is the reverb that never stops ringing out

[@dominicgamboa2554]

Thanks for everything. I'm sure you're making the ones up at the sky listen.

[@isolateddemon9438]

THIS IS GOLD.😀

[@christelmayland]

Thanks for your wisdom, please help the deaf up there

[@marymccutchan673]

This cistern reminds me of the "Lung" room that is used in Biosphere 2 for concerts. (the ceiling moves slowly)

[@laurastokes4777]

She had a class of Tarot reading and Indian cooking in the music department at USD in 1968. She would project slides of cards on which to meditate and then we would learn to cook Indian meals. The final was to give reading gas for the head of the music dept., the provost of Muir college and his wife and the dean and his wife. They came to see if we should get credit for such a course. We did By the way Bob Kushner the artist was a fellow student who told me of this class as I was pondering sitting on the library steps what class to take

[@laurastokes4777]

UCSD

[@connoraugusto4615]

what is reading gas

[@laurastokes4777]

@@connoraugusto4615 omit gas That was a typo

[@AidaKhorsandi]

3:58 ... Golden!

[@repeatle]

HERO

[@robertobonini2431]

space time continuum

[@sugarpuff8951]

wonderful Pauline

[@user-ob9zo9cr4c]

rip legend

[@magnamarferreira]

Fantastic!

[@YZOBEL5000]

NaissanceE

[@ThilinaBlyz]

wow!!!

[@scottjampa6374]

Why indeed. That reverb, that's why.

[@joebreskin]

I have spent many many hours making music in there. It is incredibly challenging

[@andrewbrown6307]

How many hours?

[@mickymao7313]

this looks so fun !

[@udomatthiasdrums5322]

love it!!

[@puipui7382]

if you are going to cough for up to ten minutes please excuse yourself. wth.

[@curtisunit]

The buddy my music listening poet mom never had but should've. The buddy I never had but would've been enriched beyond measure to have had. i knew a painter named Richard Allen Morris whose paintings would've been a suitable visual companion to her music.

[@blankeybeats8785]

Does anyone know where you can download the plugin / reverb of the cistern?? Would love to play with it.

[@orderflowdojo]

bro so many people coughing jeezus... they got cornavirus

[@m-bronte]

hearing you are not listening and listening you are paying attention to hearing.

[@konradhoroszko255]

IMPULSE RESPONSES of the Cistern, anybody? Peace

[@tonywords6713]

intro sounds like 2001 a space odyssey

[@joshuatenenbaum6657]

RIP PAULINE

[@Salarsonguerra]

No comments, just listening...

[@laurenceburris6361]

I am hearing as if for the first time. I am hearing as if for the first time. I am hearing as if for the first time. I am hearing as if for the first time. I am hearing as if for the first time. I am hearing as if for the first time. I am hearing as if for the first time. I am hearing as if for the first time. I am hearing as if for the first time. I am hearing as for the first time.

[@Aeraseth]

They were coughing so much during this, it was slightly annoying

[@maxatrillian]

yeah is this room filled with mustard gas or something

[@ellenrosenblatt5463]

She does remind me of Ringo.

[@VarunTheKumar]

I want her shirt

[@ajpip9719]

Wish people would stop coughing the whole time. Wtf. How rude

[@puipui7382]

yeah really. if your going to cough for 5 to ten minutes leave.

[@08bourquem]

yes but if you listen to the reverberation of the cough in the amphitheater it is the release of germs into the acoustics.

[@Axemang]

So now the body's reaction to throat irritation is rude? Think about that next time you get a cough in public.

[@tommont]

Keith Jarrett!

[@NiZaRiOn]

Y'all should hear Jimmy Hendrix, not listen to it.

[@brunanski1626]

Can't anybody tell this woman to shut up? She doesn't let me hear the coughing

[@doreenporter8176]

Bye for now. Speak to you tomorrow.

[@goosedcreativity12]

a savant

[@optiquemusic6204]

The irony is that listening to a crowded room may be unlistenable, especially if you have hearing sensitivities like Misophonia. Pauline has a good message if you're a music creator, but it is flawed.

[@juniiiior999]

elaborate

[@optiquemusic6204]

@@juniiiior999 Alright. Misophonia is a neurological condition where certain sounds can negatively affect your mood, ranging from blind rage to just feeling miserable. A listening exercise like this, whether it be in person or through a YT video, means that you Will be hearing every sniff, every cough, every throat-clearing and every sneeze, which Will sour your mood and make you feel like it was a mistake to come here.

[@theobscotch]

Pauline, mate... you're set on us not conflating listening and hearing, so stop conflating brain and mind. The brain cant listen.

[@nik8099]

How is she conflating brain and mind?

[@Malchior_Rises]

it's sad that you can't comprehend that the brain is what processes your puppet body

[@JohnBorstlap]

What she describes here, is merely the normal practice of any professional musician, of any orchestral rehearsing: listening to sound as such, plus organising musical meaning which is conveyed through the sounds. She presents sound as such as separated from music, so what is the point? 'Deep listening' is normal practice in music life, and this lecture is merely taking-out a part of musical practice and blowing it up with philosophy so that it seems to be something 'new' and 'special'. It is nonsense.... like John Cage's fussy nonsense.

[@JohnBorstlap]

Obaysch I don't know her, never heard of her, and merely reacted to the video. No reason to take it personal.

[@davidboeving]

Idk, man. Deep listening, like John Cage's works, complicates the relationship of the performer and the audience, pulling the audience further into the compositional relationship, as did the work of Cage's teacher, Schoenberg, who also influenced Oliveros. Sure, all musicians consider space, but not in the way that Oliveros/Cage did; they highlighted space as a fundamental aspect of the performance.

[@JohnBorstlap]

David Boeving Are Cage's works really works? He took out the human element to let sounds 'be themselves' without human intervention. But art is always the result of human activity and human intervention. Schoenberg did quite the opposite of Cage, wanting to manipulate and invervene as much as possible, even to the extent of wanting to change listener's ears so that they understand his serial works. Sound as such is not music, because music is an art form and a product of human imagination and aesthetics. Pure sound and listening to it very attentively is something else, that's OK, but please don't call it music.

[@davidboeving]

John, "Are Cage's works really works?" Yes, they are. And no, he did not take out the human element; that's not even logically possible. He displaced the role of the performer, highlighting the role of the audience and audition, and did so in differing way depending on the work, most of which highlighted time as the main unit of composition over notes. Cage wrote extensively about his compositional method, just like Schoenberg. Cage's works focus on the aesthetics of time by focusing mainly on interval relations. And Schoenberg did not do "quite the opposite" either. Each exploded an accepted component of music as it was traditionally defined and experimented with that component; Schoenberg's process shaped Cage's process; Cage was Schoenberg's student; each explored relations of elements of music that had gone essentially unexplored previously. You should check out some of Cage's theoretical work; it really opens up what his musical works are doing.

[@JohnBorstlap]

David Boeving But Cage's 'works' just sound entirely uninteresting, lacking any aesthetic, artistic, musical content or value, and even as sound art they are boring to death. No, whatever theory Cage developed, it cannot excuse the silliness of the results. It is not music, I repeat. It is bad philosophy with acoustical silly demonstrations. Cage once got a full day at the Dutch national classical radio station to fill with his 'works' which was ridiculous in the extreme, with or without theory: plucking cactusses, burbling nautilus shells with water, etc. etc. In art, it is not the theory but the result that counts. Putting Cage and Schoenberg in some comparable category seems really missing the point of what they did entirely.