We “hear” sounds or noises that come from the environment we live in, sounds that we take in but we usually ignore. Meanwhile, “listening” is paying attention to sounds and try to understand and make sense of it. We can make choices about what we listen to. John Cage, for example, in the Ways of Hearing podcast, gave a reason to why he keeps his window open next to the busiest street. Noises from the street are loud, but he chooses to listen to every sound that comes from the street to feel connected. Whereas some people on the same street could be blocking those sounds by putting on their headphones and only listening to what they want to listen to. Race, gender, or social class does inform how we listen. For example, gentrification by rich people or companies taking over certain areas or huge spaces can lead to noise restrictions. Because of that it drives more people to further areas which results in more traffic and people, and longer commutes also mean more noise. There are other structural elements that affect our listening experiences, such as religion and technology. Schafer mentions that in some parts of the world “the aural sense still tends to predominate.” As for technology, since the 1920’s the level of sounds and different kind of sounds have increased due to constructions, vehicles, trains which resulted in with the start of decibels and lobbying for quiet space laws. Now with our modern technology, we have earbuds and limitless options for listening.  

According to Schafer, people have learned to ignore unwanted sounds and expresses his concern over rising levels of noise pollution. He suggests how we must find a way to decide what sound we want to preserve and what sound we must eliminate. He also mentions that we can learn how sound can change people’s behavior and can help us understand social conditions and tell us more about the evolution of society. However, Krowski talks about how people have created their own private bubbles by disconnecting themselves from the sounds of our environment. For instance, headphones take us to a different mind space. People have found ways to reduce reverberation with different techniques and create their own private bubble to hear the desired sound. 

There are differences between “hearing” and “listening”. Hearing means that the sound you hear everywhere and every day, but you don’t really pay attention. For example, the sounds of trains, airplanes, cars, buses, and so on. We hear those sounds every day, but we don’t really pay attention to it unless we have reason to do otherwise we ignore them.  On the other hand, listening is about paying attention to the sound you hear, and it requires a conscious effort. I believe that we can make choices about what we listen to avoid unnecessary noise. For example, we listen to music to avoid unnecessary background noises that come in our every day’s life. Digital technology has changed our public spaces to private spaces of listening to music and sounds through the advent of headphones, digital podcasts, and audio devices. I believe that structural features, such as race, or social class, inform how we listen. For example, I like to listen to natural sounds such as birds chirping, the sound of rain or river and it calms me down because I grew up listening to those natural sounds in Nepal.

Schafer in the ” The Soundscape” discusses that soundscape is the acoustic environment as perceived by humans. He also tells us that “noise pollution is now a world problem”. On the other hand, Krukowski in the “ways of hearing” tells us that how digital technology is privatizing public space. We can understand that the noise in New York city is considered a challenge. Schafer talks about the noises that are coming from everywhere such as buses, cars, trains etc. and these noise pollutions need to be taken care of and Krukowski talks about digital technology where we can avoid unnecessary noise by using headphones and earphones. That is how Schafer and Krukowski discuss about the relationship space and sound.

Sound is naturally produced from objects, while hearing allows us to listen and understand the vibrations. Sound is one way that will enable us to communicate once we hear what’s being generated, then we make that decision whether or not to speak. We do decide to listen to what we want to hear. We make that choice by ignoring someone not responding, putting on noise cancellation earphones, etc. Schafer and Krukowski discuss how space has an impact on the way we interpret sound. Krukowski explains how we have selective hearing depending on where we are at. Krukowski also mentions that we choose to put headphones into our ears to cancel any loud noise in public spaces. We create our own space not paying attention to what’s around us, we disconnect from the real world. Schaffer interpretation about sound and space is how a natural sound can be overheard by other sounds that are reproduced.

The difference between hearing and listening can be different for everyone. I think that listening  is when you listening closely to something you want to listen to like your favorite song or you want to listen to someone sing but hearing you can hear things and not be listening to it you can hear someone speaking but you’re not paying attention to what they’re saying. You can hear it but you can ignore it even when you block it from your brain and block the sound out you can still hear it but your brain just drowns it out. If you are focused on something else you can have the choice between hearing and actually listening to it by trying to focus on what you’re paying attention to, like reading a book and people are talking ,we try to ignore it. What we hear and listen to is different depending on what race, gender, and social class we are. For example, people of a different race don’t listen to ignorance because they learn to ignore things that are said to them  because they heard it threw out their lives . It can also depend on a person’s age, where they live, and personality.
Schafer and Krukowski’s point is that the relationship between sound and space is the space your in can play a part in how you hear sounds and things around you.

Blog Post #5

The difference between hearing and listening is that people tend to hear things if it isn’t something that they’re interested in, it won’t seem of importance to want to hear more information about it. So they may brush it off or even think about something else while they hear someone talking. When it comes to listening, I would say it’s something people are interested in getting more information about; thus, when people listen to someone talk, they give it their full attention avoiding any distractions because the information may be beneficial to aspects of their lives. People make choices based on what they listen to; rather than what they hear. Most people tend to listen to a social class structure, especially if that person has power. Seeing that most people would listen to someone with that power, it would display that they’re receiving accurate information due to his or her status in society. For instance, if they have a big following and people look up to them; and deliver information, people will run with that information and believe every word; even if it’s misinformation, only because it’s a celebrity.

As Damon Krukowski mentioned, “digital devices extend interior space into the street, through audio we’re privatizing our public space.” It’s noisy in New York City (NYC), so most people use phones or listen to their headphones while they walk down the street to block out the noise around them. On public transportation, people will use their headphones, not only to avoid the noise pollution around them but also to avoid hearing peoples’ conversations in which they aren’t interested because they are strangers. When people are in public spaces, most times it’s uncomfortable, from noise to crowds of people, so they find comfort in listening to their headphones and not having to deal with the discomfort of being in public spaces. Gentrification also played a big part in the noise in NYC because of all the construction of the new buildings that were being built around the city. 

1. There are differences between “hearing” and “listening”.  I would say that “hearing” is a process that comes naturally. It was a passive process that people usually don’t make an effort. It doesn’t need concentration. On the other hand, “listening” needs our effort to do it such as paying attention. We can hear someone is talking, yet we might not listen to them. Clearly, people always make choices about what we listen to. Moreover, I would say music taste might tell us about what is social class or gender of whom that listening to that kind of music.

2. According to the podcast, ways of hearing episode 2, Schafer and Krukowski discussed that there were relationships between sound and space. They took us to “CBGB” which was the old club in East village’s manhattan. This place had its own meaning as a special space because it was a space that shared sound when musicians performed.  Moreover, they talked about sound and space in the 1920s. The reason they talked bout this year was because it was a very noisy year. Technology, including Subway, was developed ver fast. This made New York City become so loud. Many people, who shared the same space, had a hard time dealing with noisy sounds every day. So, the quiet zone was invented. It was a precious space for people who want to escape those unpleasant sounds. Gentrification was one of the factors that made the city get noisier. Schafer and Krukowski also discussed to radio city music hall. They stated that this was the first hall to emphasize the sound. It was just like CBGB, that this was the space that was built for the purpose of the sound. Clearly, there is a significant relationship between sound and space.

1. What do you take the differences between “hearing” and “listening” to be? Do we make choices about what we listen to? If so, how do we make these choices? What criteria do we use? Do structural features, such as race, gender, or social class, inform how we listen? How so? Are there other structural elements that affect our listening experiences?
2. How do Schafer and Krukowski discuss the relationship between sound and space?

Newspaper and magazine editors are selecting the photos to publish that depict black people as victims and succumbing to white violence as opposed to them fighting for their rights because they want everyone to see what is actually happening to black people and how terrible they are treated because of their race. Although I agree with Berger and how the media tends to show more of black people as victims, I think death would give more attention to everyone more than to show black people protesting unfortunately. It is important to show everyone how much white people are treating black people, it is also very powerful to see photographs of black people uniting together to stand up for themselves and their rights.