Our group’s response

Siti, Zoey and Jia Xi were in my group for this exercise. In our performance, our response to the various questions is as follows:

• Sound – rhythmic clapping
• Noise – non-rhythmic clapping
• Sound – loud bang
• Silence – moments after the bang
• Listening – the whole process

My Own Interpretation

Sound is an experience, and from it we can derive meaning, whether consciously or subconsciously. For example, by hearing the clapping, one can imagine that a person is putting their hands together to create that particular sound. To me, sound is fairly neutral in nature. It is neither explicitly positive or negative. Our own interpretation of each sound depends on who we are, what we’ve gone through and what we know.

Noise is unpleasant. For me, the concept of noise carries a negative connotation. It is something that can be annoying at best, and terrifying at worst. I think that noise is something indistinguishable, we cannot really pin it down to anything concrete and that feeling of not knowing is unnerving. The more intense the noise, the more discomfort it can bring. 

Silence is contrast. I think that there cannot be true silence if we are alive, because there is always sound or noise in the background. The closest we can get to pure silence is the aftermath of sound – when there is a distinct sound and then none, our mind registers it as silence. It is the contrast between the moment when there is sound and the next, when the sound ends.

Listening is interpretation. We are listening when we actively process the sounds we are hearing, and then try to make meaning of it. If there is no conscious effort to understand, we are just hearing.

Response to another group’s work

I think that Cheng Guo’s group had a really interesting response to sound. Without any visuals, they were still able to create a narrative, which really highlights how powerful sound can actually be in driving a message. I think one important thing that I learnt from their group was that sound is very subjective. From their soundscape, there were two different interpretations – either you were a survivor or you died during the terrorist attack. It all depends on the person hearing the sound. So, when using sound, we need to help guide the audience as well if we intend to elicit a specific response because it is so open-ended.