The Concept Of Listening, Not Only Hearing

The digital age destroys our cultural life in some ways. Thus, what kind of cultural reflection can machines bring to us in the digital age? Shifting to another way, to talk about sound is to talk about listening. From the symposium “City Sonic Places: Experiencing the Urban Soundscape,” Peter Cusack has said “…listening, but not only hearing…”. It brought out the structure of the word “listen” in Chinese character which is exactly describing how should we listen to the cities or any kind of sound. “To use your ears with your eyes, and pay attention to the sound with your heart. ” It is the understanding of how we should listen to the world. Also, this is how “listen” in Chinese character constructed by. There is one ear, ten eyes, and one heart in this character.

There is an exciting evolution through studying this character. From the oldest character can be found in the world — Oracle bone Script was the form of Chinese characters used of oracle bones (animal bones or turtle plastrons used in pyromaniac divination) in the late second millennium BCE. At the earlier stage, it shaped by two mouths are talking to an ear, which means some people (not only one) is talking to you. Also the information you have received are not always the same. Alongside with the development, it became one mouth talks to an ear. It is because of the simplified usually. Coming to 1500 BC, it has developed to Chinese Bronze Inscription, it also commonly referred to as Bronze Script or Bronzeware Script, are writing in a variety of Chinese ritual bronze such as bells and tripodal cauldrons. Because it developed from Oracle Bone Script, so they have the similar structure. Only the part representing ear has a little bit change, but it also constructs by ear and mouth.

Alongside with the time pass by, it turns to Seal Script, it was an ancient style of writing Chinese characters that were common throughout the latter half of the first millennium BC. It was widely used for decorative engraving and seal, name chops or signets. In this stage, this character has a significant remodelling and concordance. It constructs with “ear” “eye” “heart” and “sound” as “listen. ” “Ear” which means that we have to use the ear to listen; “Eye” has been added to reflect in the ear, peoples are not only believed what they have heard but also have to observe carefully what they have heard. “Heart,” that people would think or analyse the information that has got. It is huge progress that Chinese understanding on “Listen. ” From this period onward, Chinese character has been in a gradual simplification. It has not been changed a lot, like Clerical Script, also formerly Chancery Script, was dominant in the Han dynasty and remained in use through the Wei-Jin periods in ancient China, and it still used for artistic flavour in a variety of functional application.

Moreover, Regular Script is appearing by 200 CE and maturing stylistically around the seventh century, hence most common in modern writing and publications. These two are becoming a kind of handwriting style in calligraphy. Yet in the particular character “listen”, it did not have much change in its structure. Those characters which are extracted and finally fixed as ideograph becomes the existence of intention. This thinking transformation also makes the oriental cognition in Chinese characters different from the western science, which is not to obtain the law through the analysis of the internal micro essence, but to obtain the concept through the high abstraction of the overall feature IQ, paying attention to the intuitions, images, and perceptions from practice. Also, there are a lot of ancient Chinese philosophers have noted their idea of “listen. ”