Janez Križaj

The Culture of Listening

Lecture

The presentation is designed as a mental walk from the basic concepts of physics “What is sound?“, through psychoacoustics, cognitive psychology, the social and anthropological meaning of music and its political economy to a conversation with the audience.

The author will address a few current topics of sound ecology such as sound pollution, the omnipresence of noise and its consequences, the right to silence, the processes of sound perception, the meaning of musical art and silence as a space for its emergence.

Using the example of the Music is born from silence initiative, he will present the meaning and possibility of social engagement through an acoustic ecology interactive work, which also includes the condition of silence under the phrase “freedom of expression“. The interactive advocates for following a simple guideline for creating sound images of spaces: “Wherever music is listened to, only ONE piece of music should be listened to at a time!“

The presentation is designed as a mental walk from the basic concepts of physics “What is sound?“, through psychoacoustics, cognitive psychology, the social and anthropological meaning of music and its political economy to a conversation with the audience.

The author will address a few current topics of sound ecology such as sound pollution, the omnipresence of noise and its consequences, the right to silence, the processes of sound perception, the meaning of musical art and silence as a space for its emergence.

Using the example of the Music is born from silence initiative, he will present the meaning and possibility of social engagement through an acoustic ecology interactive work, which also includes the condition of silence under the phrase “freedom of expression“. The interactive advocates for following a simple guideline for creating sound images of spaces: “Wherever music is listened to, only ONE piece of music should be listened to at a time!“

Janez Križaj

Currently mostly retired, has been a freelance artist, sound designer and music producer for 40 years. For the last decade or more, he has dedicated his time to engaging in the field of listening culture and raising awareness about the pressing but too often silenced challenges of sound pollution in living environments. As part of the One Music Society, he participates in the interactive acoustic ecology initiative Music is Born from Silence, which highlights the topics of sound ecology, noise politics, and the right to silence.

Photo: Author’s archive

ACCESSIBILITY

Performance language: Slovenian

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