In “Living with Music” Ralph Ellison describes that music affected his living experience in his New York City apartment building by observing people who live close to him, but rather than observing his subjects, he often hears them through his walls of his apartment building. In hearing these sounds it reinforces his perception of the place and community. Ellison mentions the sounds of loud neighbors that drive him mad as he wishes for peace and quiet, he starts to hear the sounds surrounding him in a dissimilar way once he starts making his own sounds in the apartment. He hears the sounds as a depiction of his neighbor’s lives rather than assorted noise.

Ellison mentions “In those days it was either live with music or die with noise”. What Ellison means by this is that there is a dissimilarity between the two types of sounds, which are music and noise. Ellison would fight noise with noise and realized that when his neighbor finished singing, and with music in his own apartment, the chaotic sounds from without and above had sunk. This juncture is where the distinction between noise and music is clear. Ellison has the option to either hear music from his city-dwellers or be disrupted by the noises that disintegrate the silence.

In  Ways of hearing episode 2: Space, Krukowski speaks about noise and his experience growing up in New York City. Krukowski mentions the noise of the city as “less of a roar and more like being hit with a massive wave of sounds and people”. And mentions how listening to music using heads phones cancels the city noise. This point is similar to that of Ralph Ellison because yet again there is a clear distinction between two sounds which are noise and music. The city noise is that of Ellison’s apartment building noise and Ellison cancelled out the noise by playing music in his apartment while Krukowski explains how technology like headphones cancels out the loud city noise.

•  Ralph Ellinson describes how he was very influenced by the Sound around him and how he got used to it. In between of all the sound that he could not get rid of them but better get used to them. In his essay he talks about his neighbor and how the sound of her goes throughout his apartment as if she was by his side. In addition he talks about a guy that used to sing in the corner and passed away. I think that what he did with his environment was the same as the motto says “if you can not fight with the enemy, be a teammate of his”. It may not be an enemy to him but the sound gets to some limits that bother and the last thing he has to do is just get used to it. At the end he just was wishing well of the drunk guy that used to sing in the corner

•  The deal is that he does music and looking inside in this phrase it is easy to say that this was because of what he was living. What you rather would do, listen to the environment sound, that not always may be good or adequate or listen to the music you want or the one that you create?, there is a big common thing between R. Murray Schafer’s and Ralph Allison and it is the NYC sound around their flat.

• The common points and very interesting one was that both of  them have some history with the sound of New York City which is a true reality.One of them is a podcast and the other is a essay but the feeling with the NYC sound is almost the same because they both had to get used to them, after getting used to thing around you, you may develop certain feeling with them. Therefore that’s what happens with each of them, R. Murray Schafer’s with the sound of everything that comes throughout the window  and the city sound and Ralph  Ellison with his neighbors and music or voice sounds.

In ” Living with music” Ralph Ellison described that music affects his living experience in his New York City apartment building by hearing things in his neighborhood as he described, drunk and singer noise. Living there inspired him because there were many passionate musicians who lived in his building and made him think about how the importance of the sound of music is.

When he said “In those days it was either live with music or die with noise” means as a person we need to choose whatever sound we want to listen to. There are a lot of noises in the world that we don’t want to hear. We need to choose which sound that good for us. If we can’t choose, we will live our life with overwhelming feelings. Some noises are not good for our mental health or our ears, for example screaming sound, and construction sound. So we need to listen to some things that fulfill our happiness like some music. Music can keep people sane in this crazy and unpleasant noisy world.

Ellison’s essay mostly talked about his life experience through surroundings sounds from his New York City apartment building. Likewise, in “The Soundscape”, Schafer talked about sound and how it affects the space surrounding it. Both of them focus on sound and space.

Ralph Ellison describes he is observant of those who live near him but he hears them more than visually seeing them. He explains how hearing sounds strengthens his sense of place in his community. The difference between noise and music is people who listen to sound as noise listen differently and as more of a disturbance or miserable compared to music which is more ambient and pleasurable. I think a good comparison between both essays would be how both choose how or what they listen to. They both listen to their surroundings whether that Ellison in his apartment building or Krukowski on a walk.

I think hearing is more of an act of hearing sounds vs listening is more making sense and connecting to a sound. I think we all make choices on what we choose to listen to. Our brains start to accustom to listening or not listening to certain sounds. We tend to listen to sounds we want to hear rather than the ones we don’t. Structural elements that have an effect on what we hear and choose to hear are the way we grew up or the type people we surround ourselves with. We pick and choose through sound selection. When Schafer and Krukowski discuss sound and space they talk about how sound affects the space you’re in. We control what we listen to in the environment we are in.

In my personal experience there’s a distinct difference between “hearing” and “listening”. Hearing is something done involuntarily. It’s the noise that’s all around us in our everyday lives such as cars passing by, sirens, rain hitting the window, etc. Listening is something done actively, this means you’re giving your attention and focusing on a sound and trying to understand it’s meaning. I certainly believe we make choices about what we actually listen to, I can turn on the TV and focus on a different task. Even though I “hear” the TV, that doesn’t mean I’m actively listening to it. The criteria used is by prioritizing what’s important to us, is it something worth listening to. Structural features such as race, gender, or social class do matter to how we listen, for example if the president is giving a speech on tv, you’re more likely to see a lot of people actively listening to that rather than something going on around them.  Schafer and Krukowski discuss there is a relationship between sound and space. In NYC specifically because of technological advancements and growth, the city gradually became loud. Nowadays people listen to music on their headphones to block out the sounds of the city because it wasn’t something they wanted to hear.

According to an old proverb my grandparents use, it says, “see, blind, and hear and deaf, this means you should pay attention to your own business, not meddle in another person’s business.
We hear and listen; the mind analyzes what sound salivating the brain and pays attention to a particular one.
Being from the Caribbean, we thought to live by that saying. As a child growing up, you will hear adults talking, but you cannot listen even when you are sitting just three inches apart from each other.
Because hearing consists of sounds listened to, it perceives what sound to pay attention to.
Even though They are of the same body parts, hearing and Listening are similar but have different results.
To hear is always at the forefront. One could hear so many different sounds surrounding them, the doors banging, the rustling of the garbage bag, the plane flying overhead, and the train moving on its tracks. However, all the focus is to listen to the YouTube video on Schafer describing soundscape. Technology has made this possible because headphones have changed how one listens.
According to Schafer, Listening is a collection of sounds that can be miraculous if one listens and hear all the sounds surrounding them. Because Listening is consciously done with little or no effort, one can enhance the sense of hearing and listening.
Technology allows us to glide between the two with little or no effort by locking off the outside world and being in one of their own.
The Miriam Webster dictionary defines the meaning of hearing as the: process, function, or power of perceiving sound precisely: the special the unique sense by which noise and tones are received. While on the other hand, it says Listening means to pay attention to sound to hear something with thoughtful attention is displayed.

I believe that the representations of women today do objectify them in similar ways to what Berger describes of how women were depicted in the renaissance paintings. In episode two of Ways of Seeing John Berger elaborates on the idea of how in certain paintings where the female body is illustrated it is portrayed in a way most pleasing to men. Furthermore, Berger indicates the distinction between what it means to be naked and the idea of what being seen as nude signifies.

To elaborate John Berger is trying to illustrate the idea that being seen as nude- is to be viewed as an object, most particularly through the lens of objectification and overall sexualization.  Berger emphasizes the fact that to be nude is to be objectified and portrayed in a desirable and sexual manner. Berger is spot on because the representations of women today sexualize and objectify women even more- In addition, Berger is correct when he says women are painted and photographed in ways to please men. In society, today women are often objectified and forced to live up to unrealistic beauty standards-  various outlets of media use the female body and these standards to appeal to certain audiences which include mainly men. The idea of being seen nude is harmful because it perpetuates the idea that women are nothing more than their bodies and are here only to please men. Everyone already knows that the female body is beautiful and capable of life but the concept of being nude has been twisted when in reality being naked is a beautiful choice one makes out of their own free will. To carry on, I would say that women do not really have control over their image in the media- the media itself portrays women to be less than men and the over-sexualization of the female anatomy also impacts what it means to look and behave as a woman.  In 2021, I do see women owning their sexuality and creating their own image which lends to new and more inclusive representations.

      There is a perfect meaning for each word, “hearing” is just when the sound passes through your ears or sense but “listen” is when you really are giving attention to what someone is saying or to any sound. Is very important to choose what you want to listen to. There is not a thing in a crowd that if you pay attention you will be able to listen. Therefore, that comes when you choose what you are paying attention to. We clearly can make that choice easy, when there is something that you think is important to you or makes an impact on your senses. I think that criteria that we use depend on each individual because each one decides what is important to them. The features are important,each individual has a different one. This could be how to use targets to inform people, it could be depending on social class and race. It could be that some structure influences the way it sounds but not the meaning of it.

         They discuss it in the way that the city produced it. The space where we are is very important because ech space can give us a different feeling and how we listen to it. Is very important that sometimes we just block the things that make sounds around us. The great thing was that they gave some great examples about it, like the way you listen to things around you or listen.