09 June 2008

How's your noise footprint?

In an era where, as soon as you have three people in a room at least one will have a ringing mobile phone, and when everything seems to have its own annoying beep, and the buses talk at you, here are some prophetic words.

"Soon silence will have passed into legend. Man has turned his back on silence. Day after day he invents machines and devices that increase noise and distract humanity from the essence of life."--Jean Arp
This is Arp's "Silencieux", 1942.

2 comments:

Cher said...

how true...it is also hard to "get" folks to just sit still and listen to that silence. thanks for your comment on my blog-I fear that growth!

Olga Norris said...

I have just returned to the silence of home after a week in a noisy city with cars passing the window all night, mobile phone tones going off at all times followed by loud conversations, music blaring out of open windows, ... not to mention gatherings of relatives shouting over each other and the television on at the same time. Silence like time is indeed such a precious commodity.