LIVE Conversation Portraits: Pursuit of Silence in a Noisy World: GEORGE PROCHNICK
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PART I. ON THE PURSUIT OF SILENCE IN A NOISY WORLD
GEORGE PROCHNIK in conversation with Paul Holdengräber
Through his book, In Pursuit of Silence : Listening for Meaning in a World of Noise, George Prochnik explores the benefits of decluttering our sonic world. Speaking with doctors, neuroscientists, acoustical engineers, monks, activists, educators, marketers, and citizens, Prochnik examines what gets lost when we can no longer find quiet. Some of the characters he's encountered on the road include:
• An architect pioneering a new kind of silent architecture in collaboration with the Deaf community at Gallaudet University.
• A special operations soldier in Afghanistan (and former guitarist for Nirvana) who places silence at the heart of survival in war.
• A sound engineer for shopping malls who ensures that the stores we visit never stop their auditory seductions.
• A group of commuters who successfully revolted against piped-in music at Grand Central Station.
PART II. SOUND EXCITEMENT: ARTISTS & SCIENTISTS ON THE HEARD & UNHEARD
Artist
• Wendy Jacob presents Waves and Signs, a performative structure designed to carry low-frequency vibrations that are played through the floor. By sitting, standing, or lying on the stucture, all audience members will be able to experience tactile sound through their bodies- for example: the vibrations produced by spiny shrimp, and, the vibrations communicated between elephants through the ground.
Scientists
• Sheila Patek probes the physical experience of sound in water with Sound Sensations in the Sea.
• Robert Sirvage examines the everyday experience of the visual and tactile world with Deaf Space.
• Caitlin O’Connell Rodwell presents the mechanisms used by elephants to communicate sound with Elephant Rumbles: Communication through the Vibrotactile Sense.
• Hansel Bauman discusses the Deaf Space Project at Gallaudet University.
This evening is funded, in part, by the Council for the Arts at MIT.
ABOUT GEORGE PROCHNIK
George Prochnik is the author of Putnam Camp: Sigmund Freud, James Jackson Putnam & The Purpose of American Psychology and In Pursuit of Silence: Listening for Meaning in a World of Noise.
ABOUT PAUL HOLDENGRABER
Paul Holdengräber is the Director of Public Programs - LIVE from the NYPL- for The Research Libraries of The New York Public Library.
ABOUT WENDY JACOB
Wendy Jacob is an artist, lecturer and Research Scientist in the Program in Art, Culture and Technology at MIT.
ABOUT SHEILA PATEK
Sheila Patek is a biologist who probes the physical experience of sound in water, the hearing mechanisms of spiny lobsters, mantis shrimp, and other acoustic organisms thought to be lacking “true” ears. Sheila is Assistant Professor in the Biology Department at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.
ABOUT ROBERT SIRVAGE
Robert Sirvage is a designer and researcher at Gallaudet University. Sirvage examines the social and physical rhythms of everyday experience within the context of the highly visual and tactile world of deaf space.
ABOUT CAITLIN O'CONNELL RODWELL
Expert on elephant communication, Caitlin O’Connell-Rodwell studies the mechanisms that elephants employ to communicate over long distances, both in the air and in the ground. Caitlin is a biologist on the faculty at Stanford University School of Medicine, Department of Otolaryngology, Head & Neck Surgery.
ABOUT HANSEL BAUMAN
Hansel Bauman is an architect, and the director of Deaf Space Project at Gallaudet University.
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This event is located in the Celeste Bartos Forum of The New York Public Library. Enter on 42nd Street near 5th Avenue and proceed to Celeste Bartos Forum.
Box office opens at 5:00pm, Doors open at 6:15pm, Program begins at 7:00pm. Arrive early for seats!
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