Scrape, Brush, Flick

Abstract

No thing makes a sound. All sounds are made by two things. They touch; they speak; they sing. We hear that most intimate connection between two entities rubbing up against each other. It is the things talking to themselves. We eavesdrop on the world. As we listen, we attune to our surroundings, sounding out what we do not see: the insides of things, things hidden behind other things, hidden things inside our own bodies. For the ear, things are no longer stuck to their physical locations: intimations of them arrive by air, running all the way around our bodies and passing right though them. These auditory communiques animate us from within even as they animate the world without. Hearing participates with the other senses in the sensuous epistemology that grants us knowledge of our world and ourselves.