What I Hear

On my soundwalk, I had the opportunity to listen to an enclosed environment from the evening as it shifted late into the night. At first there were a lot of sound signals with lots of chatter and excitement as ideas were discussed, keys were being typed at a keyboard, and printers were spitting out paperwork. At this point in the hour, the keynotes of the atmosphere can be heard from the rowdy-hectic outsiders running around. As time goes by, the energy within the room started to calm down as the typing at the keyboard began to slow down along with the slowing of the printers. The discussing of ideas slowly turn into a different type of chatter that leads to laughter filling the room. Music and videos spark even louder laughter as that begins to shift to be the signal sounds and the background noises ironically turn into the quieting in the hallways beyond our enclosed environment. This was my favorite time to listen to because I could hear all of the happiness and energy bursting through all of the noises being created. Nothing was forced or fake in those moments and there was nothing but positive noises filling the room. These sounds simmered down into a calm silence which matched the quieting that had happened long before outside of the space. I surprisingly enjoyed this time as well; normally I prefer to be in places that have a lot of keynotes going on as well as multiple sources of sound signals because it gives me comfort. This experience taught me to appreciate all types of atmospheres and to be open to new and unfamiliar experiences.