Listen
Exhibition
Listen: Making Sense of Sound was a project of the Exploratorium that made the act of attentive listening the primary entry point for interacting with a wide variety of natural and technological phenomena. Funded in 2003 by the National Science Foundation (DRL-0307925), the project departed from the San Francisco museum's traditional focus on the physics and physiology of sound. Instead, it made the information and aesthetic pleasure derived from engaging in attentive listening a new lens through which exhibit components and activities were realized. In addition to an exhibition and public programs, the project also resulted in a Listening traveling exhibition that is part of the Exploratorium's EXNET (Exploratorium Network for Exhibit-based Teaching) collection and a web site that includes listening activities and a collection of short online videos developed collaboratively with a cadre of "Listening Guides."
The Listening Guides are a group of "expert listeners" whose life or work require extraordinary attention:
- Listen to nature—Doniga Markegard, a wildlife tracker
- Listen to get around—Dean Hudson, visually-impaired "acoustic navigator"
- Listen to make music—Bart Hopkin, experimental instrument builder
- Listen to solve problems—Lisa Miller, auto mechanic
- Listen to process sound- Mike Chorost, an educational researcher who is a cochlear implant user
Other Listen interactive activities include a primary lesson in distinguishing between bird calls, a game of "audio pong," a listening memory game, and the opportunity to build a soundscape. These activities were designed to suggest new ways of listening and give the user a sense of how others hear the world.
Through their extensive research, formative evaluation, and prototyping efforts, the Exploratorium Listen team found that it takes practice to learn to listen to your sonic environment and that attentive, focused listening can open up new worlds. The development of the Listen exhibition in the cavernous, acoustically challenging environment of the Exploratorium also catalyzed innovative solutions to previously intractable problems of reverberation and sound 'leakage'. Working with Andre Weatherhead of Weatherhead Design and Red Wetherhill of Ewart A. Wetherhill AIA, the Listen team developed a flexible, modular plan that included acoustically protective alcoves clustered in groups of three to form a honeycomb. Indeed, the entire Listen: Making Sense of Sound project focused attention to an often-overlooked dimension of museum and science center environment—the acoustics and the affordances they provide for paying attention. (See also ISE Spotlight about Wild Music: Sounds & Songs of Life. The two project teams shared insights and solutions and co-sponsored a workshop for ISE professionals about designing with sound.)
A summative evaluation of Listen conducted by Minda Borun of Museum Solutions found that visitors reported that they had learned about many different aspects of sound and listening in the exhibit. Visitors also reported that listening skill development is facilitated by the exhibition. The evaluation concluded that the Listen experience was "full of stimuli that triggered personal associations and memories which enhanced the exhibition’s impact. In terms of communicating information on all aspects of sound, the exhibit certainly reached its goals. In terms of providing a compelling, engaging, enjoyable experience, the goals were exceeded." The front-end evaluation report, by Adam Klinger, is available on InformalScience.org.
Web sites
http://exploratorium.edu/listen
http://exs.exploratorium.edu/exnet/exhibit-groups/listening
Thanks to Jamie Bell, Eric Dimond, Thomas Humphrey, and others on the Listen team for contributing to this ISE Spotlight.