Seeing With Sound

It’s been said that a picture is worth a thousand words.  These days, most of us carry around in our hands, our pockets, or our purses, powerful little devices that let us share images with each other instantaneously, and continuously.  For most of us, it has become second nature to know how to whip out our smart phones and snap a picture at the drop of a hat, and then to instantly share it with our friends and family.  This new way of communicating has truly enriched our lives, I believe. 

While the ability to share visual images like we do today is truly amazing, I believe we’re missing out on opportunity here.  Most all of our smart phones that can create these impressive images also have another feature on them….a digital sound recorder!  Sounds are critical to our understanding of the world.  When you really think about it, the visible light image that our eyes see and our mind records, is only one aspect of our life experiences.  The sounds that go along with any event can be just as amazing!

I’ve made it a point lately to try and record more of the sounds that I experience.  Much like I’ve built an extensive library of photographs over the years of events and people, I’d like to have a library of sounds as well.  When things happen that I just naturally want to take a picture of, I may pull out my camera and take a picture, but then I also ask myself if the sounds I’m experiencing should be recorded too.  It’s a different way of thinking. 

This week I heard one of the most amazing sounds I’ve ever heard in my life.  Alycia sent me a video of my new granddaughter Margo, LAUGHING!  Not just making the normal baby coos and clucks, but an all-out, full-bodied laughing fit, while watching her Dad toss a ball!   Even without the accompanying video images, I could listen to that sound over and over again (and I have!).  Here it is:

Although the sound of Margo laughing is now No. 1 on my Hit Parade, I have several more sound clips that I enjoy. 

…A train passing while I was sitting at a railroad crossing.  There is nothing more exhilarating than being first in line at a railroad crossing, rolling all your windows down, closing your eyes, and just feeling all that energy go by:

…The sound of rushing water while I was sitting beside the Truckee River in California last summer:

…The sound of a Whippoorwill in my back woods. 

…A summer thunderstorm early one morning last summer.  As you can hear, the rolling thunder just went on forever!

…The sound of the wind and wind chimes last night on my porch while I was waiting on a storm to come:

…The sound of my young nephew, Carter, praying.  One morning we were walking around the grounds of Sacred Passages in Wimberley.  When we got to Nana’s Chapel there, he suddenly felt moved to say a prayer:

Later this summer, you’ll probably hear about the 40^th anniversary of the launch of the Voyager I space probe.  The Voyager I and its sister, Voyager II, were launched in the summer of 1977.  The original intent of the Voyager program was to explore the planets of our own solar system.  However, they are both still flying through space, having long ago left our solar system.  And they are still sending data back to Earth.  Having traveled through space for almost 40 years, at a speed of 35,000 miles per hour, they are now almost 13 BILLION miles from the sun.  

Why do I bring this up?  When the Voyager program was being planned, NASA scientists and engineers knew that these two spacecraft would ultimately travel to the farthest reaches of our solar system, and possibly beyond.  In the event that these two earth ships might somehow encounter intelligent life “out there”, they wanted to send some basic communication along with the spacecraft, to let other beings know who we were, where we were, and that we came in peace.  So, mounted on the side of each Voyager spacecraft is a “Golden Record”, a gold-plated audio-visual disc that carries not only some scientific information and photo images, but also sound clips from Earth. 

On the “Golden Record” are sounds of whales, waves breaking on the shore, crickets, footsteps, thunderstorms, a baby crying, and the sound of a mother kissing her child.  There are peaceful greetings recorded in 55 different languages, including a message from President Jimmy Carter.  There is also a collection of various types of music, including Mozart, Bach, and blues man Blind Willie Johnson (from Marlin, Texas) singing his famous “Dark is the Night, Cold is the Ground”.  It even contains Chuck Berry’s 1958 rock and roll classic “Johnny B. Goode”.  There’s a joke about how a space creature in a faraway world found the Golden Record, listened to it, and then sent back a message to Earth, saying only, “Send more Chuck Berry”.     

 So, dear reader, I have an assignment for you.  As you go through your routine life experiences in the coming weeks, try to notice the sounds you’re experiencing, not just the sights.  Our minds naturally put the visual images foremost in our minds and memories.  But with a little training, you’ll find that the sounds can become just as important in how we observe our world around us.

Learn how to use the sound recording app on your smart phone, and how to send a sound clip by email or text.  If you capture the sound of something interesting, share it with your friends and family like you normally would a photo.  It truly does bring a whole new perspective to how you experience and remember.  If I receive some sound clips from you all, I’ll collect them and post them here in the coming weeks so that others can enjoy them too.  If they are too large to send by text message, send them by email to me.  

Happy Recording!

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“Sound has a profound effect on the senses. It can be both heard and felt. It can even be seen with the mind’s eye. It can almost be tasted and smelled. Sound can evoke responses of the five senses. Sound can paint a picture, produce a mood, trigger the senses to remember another time and place. From infancy we hear sound with our entire bodies.  – Louis Colaianni