@bolong Part and parcel of the human condition. Is reality too much or not enough?
Critical listening and altered states
Ok, this is not a question about relaxing, but about listening to evaluate how the system (or a piece of gear is sounding).
What, in your experience, are the pluses and minuses of altering your state of mind for listening? This can include anything you've used to affect your everyday state of mind, from coffee, beer, scotch, tobacco, to much stronger — and psychoactive, dissociative — additives.
What do you gain by altering your consciousness in terms of what you notice, attend to, linger on, etc?
What causes more details to emerge?
What allows you to stick with a thread or, alternately, make new connections?
Or perhaps you like to keep all those things *out* of your listening; if that's you, please say a bit about why.
What, in your experience, are the pluses and minuses of altering your state of mind for listening? This can include anything you've used to affect your everyday state of mind, from coffee, beer, scotch, tobacco, to much stronger — and psychoactive, dissociative — additives.
What do you gain by altering your consciousness in terms of what you notice, attend to, linger on, etc?
What causes more details to emerge?
What allows you to stick with a thread or, alternately, make new connections?
Or perhaps you like to keep all those things *out* of your listening; if that's you, please say a bit about why.
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- 296 posts total
Did you get that copy of Everyday Music Listening from the library? How are you getting on with it? I am finding it quite academic in writing style but interesting. I think it’s going to need repeated reading of some chapters to get the most out of it. It is probably also worth exploring a few more recent papers to get a more complete and up to date view. |
@newton_john I've not had much chance. Skimming a bit, I'm very curious in the idea that listening to music while doing other things doesn't necessarily equate to superficial engagement. The notion of "multiply distributed attention" leading to involving experiences where music interacts with and mediates our perception of the environment is something I want to investigate. |
Being stuck in a room with disagreeable music for long enough could certainly bring me to cough up certain PIN numbers or whatever else my captors might desire of me. We here have to admit that music is both our strong and weak point and can sometimes be a breaking point as well an inflection point. In other words, music is enough like life that for audiophiles it is life with all its blasted precariousness and adventure. |
- 296 posts total