What's Up - Your guide to what's happening in Fayetteville, AR this week!
Issue link: https://www.epageflip.net/i/1411289
JOCELYN MURPHY NWA Democrat-Gazette F ocus your attention completely on your hearing. What do you notice? Close your eyes. Do you note even more sounds? Perhaps if you're at home, or in an office, you hear the passing cars outside, the hum of the air conditioner, the mechanical whir of your computer. But did you also hear that breath of air as it filled your lungs? The sounds of your thoughts and imagination in your mind? The deeper, unspoken feelings, wants and needs of your coworker or family member next to you? The idea of "deep listening," as developed by the late composer Pauline Oliveros, encourages listening without judgement. It is a practice of radical attentiveness that "explores the difference between the involuntary nature of hearing and the voluntary, selective nature of listening," as the Center for Deep Listening explains. But when one begins to "listen between the lines," deep listening can also provoke compassion and empathy, reveals Steve Parker. Parker is a musician, artist and curator inspired by the concept to create a series of sculptures that facilitate the act of focused listening through interactive installations. "I just find it to be like both a useful practice and a timeless practice," Parker explains. "But it's also a practice that kind of speaks to the moment that we're currently in — both in the way that we all could use a little bit more empathy and compassion for one another, but then also in the way that it's often difficult to feel present when we're inundated with information and streams of data. "And then finally," he continues, SEPTEMBER 19-25, 2021 WHAT'S UP! 5 FAQ 'Listening Objects' WHEN — On display through Oct. 13 WHERE — Turnbow Park, Shiloh Museum, INTERFORM office (117 W. Emma Ave.), all in downtown Springdale COST — Free INFO — steve-parker.net, waltonartscenter.org/edu/ visual-arts The Sounds In Silence Sculpture installations encourage compassionate listening Noise intoners are devices that were invented by Italian futurists, Parker shares, "who were really interested in kind of destroying conventional music and replacing it with devices that more accurately represented modern life in the 20th century, which is more like steam- powered or electricity or machines and mechanized things. And they wanted to do that in order to incite revolution. So these are devices that are sort of reconfiguring that to be used more as devices for self care, and for listening." (NWA Democrat- Gazette/Andy Shupe) See Listening Page 6 SPRINGDALE LISTEN HERE! Podcast Listen to a conversation between Steve Parker and What's Up! Associate Editor Jocelyn Murphy here: nwaonline.com/podcast/