The Politics Of Hearing
Today I started reading R.D. Laing's "The Politics Of Experience".
page 20 .....
"this distinction between outer and inner usually refers to the distinction between behavior and experience; but sometimes it refers to experiences that are supposed to be "inner" in contrast to others that are "outer". More accurately this is a distinction between different modalities of experience, namely, perception (as outer) in contrast to imagination (as inner). But perception, imagination, fantasy, reverie, dreams, memory are simply different modalities of experience, none more "outer" or "inner" than any other."
After reading this I thought back to the entry where I made mention of my dislike of the phrase "good ears" and suggested it be replaced with the term "good inner hearing". I still think a distinction between the ability to imagine sounds and perceive them needs to be made; but to use the word inner is to imply that audiation occurs "inside" while something else (perhaps perception) happens "outside".
Do people use the same set of physical muscles to audiate and to perceive music?
Perhaps it’s merely the locus of focus that is different; audiation and perception as experiences require catalysts that originate from different sources.
Merriam-Webster's defines perception as "awareness of the elements of environment through physical sensation."
When we perceive music we are aware of the physical phenomenon of sound that we recognize as music.
When we audiate what are we aware of? Where is our locus of focus?
If there is no physical phenomenon present and we "hear" sound what are we experiencing that causes us to hear music?
Perception of sound is common and expected.
Audiation - imaging sound - by some might be considered controversial. Perhaps that's why it's a term missing and skill obscured in most traditional music education practices. Just the notion of "hearing things" that don't exist physically occur while we are hearing them can imply a lack of mental stability.
Is the lack of specific emphasis of the audiation process within western musical practices political in nature?
Today I started reading R.D. Laing's "The Politics Of Experience".
page 20 .....
"this distinction between outer and inner usually refers to the distinction between behavior and experience; but sometimes it refers to experiences that are supposed to be "inner" in contrast to others that are "outer". More accurately this is a distinction between different modalities of experience, namely, perception (as outer) in contrast to imagination (as inner). But perception, imagination, fantasy, reverie, dreams, memory are simply different modalities of experience, none more "outer" or "inner" than any other."
After reading this I thought back to the entry where I made mention of my dislike of the phrase "good ears" and suggested it be replaced with the term "good inner hearing". I still think a distinction between the ability to imagine sounds and perceive them needs to be made; but to use the word inner is to imply that audiation occurs "inside" while something else (perhaps perception) happens "outside".
Do people use the same set of physical muscles to audiate and to perceive music?
Perhaps it’s merely the locus of focus that is different; audiation and perception as experiences require catalysts that originate from different sources.
Merriam-Webster's defines perception as "awareness of the elements of environment through physical sensation."
When we perceive music we are aware of the physical phenomenon of sound that we recognize as music.
When we audiate what are we aware of? Where is our locus of focus?
If there is no physical phenomenon present and we "hear" sound what are we experiencing that causes us to hear music?
Perception of sound is common and expected.
Audiation - imaging sound - by some might be considered controversial. Perhaps that's why it's a term missing and skill obscured in most traditional music education practices. Just the notion of "hearing things" that don't exist physically occur while we are hearing them can imply a lack of mental stability.
Is the lack of specific emphasis of the audiation process within western musical practices political in nature?
posted by Stacia @ 5:57 PM
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