An uneasy ocean of air: Sound hurts, harms and heals from noise to music

Sound is creation and movement that can embody the shadow and the light. Is something simply noise or music? How do we use or enjoy sound, how does it change us?

“Man lives in an uneasy ocean of air continually agitated by the disturbances called sound waves.” - from Sonic Experience: A Guide to Everyday Sounds by Jean-François Augoyard and Henri Torgue

Thief

The sun was setting, and the night was coming as I walked toward the restaurant to meet friends. The cool air on my face as the sound of my steps on the concrete sidewalk reverberated in my ears. It was resoundingly clear. Without conscious awareness, the mood was set - my mind transported to the first-person experience of an unreal place - yet in real-time inside the game Thief. My personal reality and temporary gaming world merged. That’s how powerful the sound of my footsteps was at that moment. It was when I consciously realised how sound impacted my behaviour and state of being. It was time to take a break from gaming! 

This experience helped me consider how sound shapes our reality outside the world of music. 

Mind and body

Sound requires interpretation from our sense organs relative to time and space and becomes embedded in our memories, and influences our present behaviours. You know that feeling when you hear a song and are transported to another time - a particular moment in time that triggers an emotional state. Our emotional state triggers physiologic processes creating a cognitive response. Because our nervous systems are bi-directional, psychological processes trigger physiologic changes in both the brain and body.