We don't have eyelids for our ears: we hear all the time, from our mother's womb and from the dawn of time. Our response to sound is intimately integrated into our DNA. Sound cradles us, informs us, alerts us, reassures us. Sound vibrations propagate and form dynamic landscapes that are very different from visual landscapes, but just as interesting. Some artists even produce works of sound in the same way as others produce paintings.
The transmission of sound, its behavior and effects, are a rich subject in science and touch almost every field of activity. Hearing is one of our primordial senses, our mental capacities are mobilized for the interpretation of sound and also for its production through speech or music, our health and morale are affected by noise... The number of professionals associated with sound is astonishing: acousticians, speech therapists, musicians, audiologists, but also mathematicians, computer scientists, engineers, therapists and technicians from all disciplines. We still have a lot to understand about sound.
We recognize animals by their cries, and we're discovering that even fish make sounds. Better still, some animals sing: birds, whales... the fable says that cicadas do too. A concert of toads in the night can bewitch latecomers.
If sound also testifies to interactions, it currently reveals that ours are not very effective: we make far too much noise and disturb our environment to a degree never heard before. The oceans are noisy, cities, countryside and forests are noisy, the subsoil vibrates with our activities: construction, transport, drilling and so on. Even the most remote regions are affected by the noise of flying, floating and other machines that frequent them.
Yet it's not so difficult to do better, starting with our schools and other places of learning. Libraries are reputed to be quiet places; there must be a good reason for that!
Denys Lamontagne - [email protected]
Illustration: Jizo - DepositPhotos
