Quantum Listening

by Pauline Oliveros, Ione (Introduction), Laurie Anderson (Foreword)

What is the difference between hearing and listening? Does sound have consciousness? Can you imagine listening beyond the edge of your own imagination?

In response to the anti-war movements of the 1960s, pioneering musician and composer Pauline Oliveros began to expand the way she made music, experimenting with meditation, movement and activism in her compositions. Fascinated by the role that sound and consciousness play in our daily lives, Oliveros developed a series of Sonic Meditations that would eventually lead to the creation of Deep Listening – a practice for healing and transformation open to all, rooted in her musicianship.

Quantum Listening is a manifesto for listening as activism. Through simple yet profound exercises, Oliveros shows how Deep Listening is the foundation for a radically transformed social matrix: one in which compassion and peace form the basis for our actions in the world.

This timely edition brings Oliveros’ futuristic vision – blending technology and spirituality – together with a new Foreword and Introduction by Laurie Anderson and IONE.

Genres: Music, Nonfiction, Philosophy, Essays, Art, Meditation, Female Authors

70 pages, Paperback

Published June 1, 2022

Reviews

[Hannah · Rating 5 out of 5]

Yoooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

[Yari · Rating 4 out of 5]

A friend gave me this book a week after I had a retreat in the forest. After sleeping the first night, I told everyone in amazement that the insects, frogs and birds singing at the same time sounded like songs... everyone laughed at me in denial. And I laughed with them a little bit ashamed.

"When one is listening to the whole field of sound without focusing on any one sound but expanding to include all sounds that can be heard- sounds seem to become interrelated rather than chaotic or meaningless. The field seems to have a unified logic and form as if it were a composed piece of music"

Short but very insightful.
I can't hug this book enough.

[Filipa André · Rating 3 out of 5]

I love what it is about but was a bit painful to actually read…

[Salma · Rating 2 out of 5]

The introduction has a curious cultish, advertising rhetoric, especially near the end: abstract terms with definitions vastly ambiguous; emphasizing community while the occasion of collectivism is unclear; overestimating the radical, social reach, the blanket effect of "Deep Listening." The abstraction continues in Oliveros' essay: sometimes it's abstraction with enough specificity to get you to engage with the scope of her ideas; other times, the abstraction is lofty, without much material to sink your teeth into. The composite arguments are half-formed or at least half-articulated, sort of like the target audience already knows her practice and could fill in the blanks, so the whole thing felt like a cursory adjunct, which it might be.

Oliveros defines quantum listening as "listening to more than one reality simultaneously.... listening in as many ways as possible simultaneously – changing and being changed by listening." This last bit is interesting to me: the idea, weakly and distractedly expanded upon here, of our conscious listening transforming the material we are listening to. This, Oliveros tells us, is analogous to collapsing the wave function in quantum mechanics, which refers to how a quantum system transforms from a superposition of multiple states into one single, definite state upon observation, before which the quantum system undecidedly coexists in different states as a smeared object, a wave.

The common idea here – in both quantum listening and collapsing the wave function – is that the condition of what we perceive through listening or observing is an artifact of our conscious engagement with it. This makes it sound like the modes of our perceptible world (sound, visual objects, etc.) are circuitous with our consciousness, waiting for feedback to be rearranged, redefined, and transformed. I think this idea is narcissistic, optimistic, and ridiculously imaginative. The quantum listening definition starts in the last 6 pages of the essay, so if you must, read these. Anyway, there are some good ideas here, I just wish it were more specific. Maybe I will check out her other work and give this another go.

[Pablo Tablas · Rating 3 out of 5]

The more I know about Oliveiros, the more I doubt the integrity of her practice. I'm always torn between seeing her as a visionary - who's developed a new technique to truly widen our perception -, or a strategist - who's founded an empire based on orientalist philosophies for naïve rich kids.

[Ruth · Rating 1 out of 5]

There is a particular type of boomer that has absolutely no real clue what ‘energy’ is. Or what ‘quantum’ means.
“Intended for healing, a new, living entity is sonically formed each time the meditation is performed”. Ok sure it is. I like magic mushrooms as much as the next person but this level of silliness is maddening. We have a brief respite in the land of sense on p29 before soon plunging back into a matrix of vibrating energy. Back in the days before you needed a full time job to pay the gas bill apparently you could do a three year course in it.
There is a great book to be written about concentrated listening, but this isn’t it.

[Johnny · Rating 4 out of 5]

David lynch would eat this up

[Florian · Rating 4 out of 5]

geeft me zin om omgevingsgeluiden actiever te beleven en te voelen!

[Martyna Ratnik · Rating 1 out of 5]

lol, anyone?

[Maeve dba · Rating 5 out of 5]

Deep listening for everyone!

[Jacobcerisgandy]

4/20

Been occasionally reading this on the way to work but had a bad month and stopped doing virtually anything altogether. Lot of interesting thoughts raised in this. I’d quite like to try the group listening exercise provided at the end.

[Kye Perry · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’ve wanted to read this for ages and a very lovely person must have been using their quantum listening as I was gifted this as a present. Pauline’s writings, thoughts, theories and ideas have put so many of my own thoughts on listening and sound perception into words and it was a delight to read.

Academic/essay type text are often impenetrable to me and get lost in big words that aren’t saying much but this touches on so much more than just listening and does so in an engaging and cute way. You do not need to be musically minded to get something from this book!

[Arcadia · Rating 3 out of 5]

For me, Deep Listening is a lifelong practice. The more I listen, the more I learn to listen. Deep Listening involves going below the surface of what is heard, expanding to the whole field of sound while finding focus. This is the way to connect with the acoustic environment, all that inhabits it and all that there is.

[Luuk van de Klundert]

Geluisterd tijdens het lezen:
Niks

[warren · Rating 4 out of 5]

got this from my sib for christmas <3 🥰

def some sections of this book aren't for me, and tbh they dont need the foreword and introduction so much. but im taking some important things from this. the way listening has been subjugated to sight (and reading & writing) in our society, partially as a product of industrialization, was very interesting. the discussion of listening as a fundamentally mutualistic thing that is always changing the listener and the listened-to was also cool.

i want to work on protecting my ears more, 'reminding myself when i'm not listening,' developing a wider listening practice that can deeply listen to the "focal and the global" ... maybe my new years resolution?

[Rebecca De · Rating 2 out of 5]

I had to stop reading because they were like why does no one care about sounds? why is there no sound recorded of the stars in space ? And it’s because space is a vacuum and sound only travels through particles so there is no sound in space :( ((like duh just google it, did you do any research?))
So too wishy washy for me (and I love that wishy washy shit, Im like wish and wash all over the place) but also will probs try read again some other time

[Morgan Jones · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Are we creating the sound that we hear by listening or is sound creating our listening?"

[Juliano · Rating 4 out of 5]

“Quantum Listening leads you to notice that you are listening. Quantum Listening leads you to attention to a point — all or nothing focus which changes that point forever. Quantum Listening leads you to an all-embracing perspective of an ever-expanding field. […] Quantum Listening is listening to our listening.” Pauline Oliveros’s Quantum Listening is a fascinating treatise on Oliveros’s practice of Deep/Quantum Listening, “a heightened state of awareness [that] connects to all that there is”. With a foreword by Laurie Anderson and an introduction by Ione situating Oliveros and her work within their contexts, the short essay then moves through Oliveros’s practice from its early conception to its present use. “From childhood I have practiced listening. As a musician, I am interested in the sensual nature of sound, its power of synchronization, coordination, release and change. Hearing represents the primary sense organ — hearing happens involuntarily. Listening is a voluntary process that through training and experience produces culture. All cultures develop through ways of listening. Deep Listening is listening in every possible way, to everything it's possible to hear, no matter what you are doing. Such intense lietening includes the sounds of daily life, of nature, or one's own thoughts, as well as musical sounds.” I enjoyed her observations that “the ear tells the eye where to look”, and “Each listener, through the act of listening, affects the field and thus the form. The form affects the listener in a dance of reflections in the space between.” Oliveros argues that “We hear in order to listen. We listen in order to interpret our world and experience meaning. Our world is a complex matrix of vibrating energy, matter and air, just as we are made of vibrations. Vibration connects us with all beings and connects us to all things interdependently.” Her world view of interconnectedness through sound is an engaging one.

[Joana Andrade · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think this book will serve more as a gateway into Pauline Oliveros's philosophy of sound and listening than as a destination in itself. There are some genuinely fascinating concepts here that I want to explore further, particularly deep and quantum listening, as well as the relationship between focused and global attention.

However, alongside these nuggets of gold there is, for my taste, rather a lot of New Age pap and, perhaps because I have a background in physics and mathematics, a fair amount of pop-cultural misappropriation of physics that repeatedly made me want to put the book down and shout, "Noooo!"

That said, I'll be charitable and assume Oliveros is trying to articulate perceptions and insights that are genuinely ineffable and, at first glance, seem contradictory. In that sense, the occasionally loose use of scientific language may be more metaphorical than literal.

The introductions by IONE and Laurie Anderson, frankly, I could also have done without.

A fascinating but, at times, irritating little essay.

[Eve Henley · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hmm. Wow? Perhaps I will start listening to everything all the time, if I have the time.

“Hearing is the passive basis of listening. Hearing is involuntary”

“We need sound designers and composers as consultants to city planning and noise abatement regulation”

“And, because we do not all share the same culture, we definitely are not all listening in the same way to the same things”

[Tim June · Rating 3 out of 5]

Wat interessante inzichten, maar vooral een handleiding voor verschillende oefeningen. Handig als je een Deep Listening retreat zou willen hosten, minder interessant voor mij als lezer die meer geïnteresseerd was naar de filosofie achter het concept van Oliveros.

Lijkt me leuk om in de toekomst naar een Deep Listening sessie te gaan. Ben alleen een beetje bang dat er veel new-age hippies zullen zijn. Love witte mensen met dreads!

[Yvonne Boon · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not concrete enough.
2.5 stars

[Nani Porenta · Rating 4 out of 5]

Need to re-read & make notes to fully understand everything but in general: LOVED

[Isobel · Rating 5 out of 5]

very inspiring

[Brook]

love pauline ♥️

[Jeroen Schwartz · Rating 2 out of 5]

Verder met de opdracht (wens) ‘een geoefende luisteraar’ te worden. En een getrainde lezer. In ieder geval geldt het essay (of manifest) voor mij een aanmoediging om bij alles (wat je doet of ‘hoort’) te voelen, al raakt het schrijven me minder dan gehoopt doordat het abstract blijft.

[Molsa Roja(s) · Rating 3 out of 5]

- 'Listen to everything all the time and remind yourself when you are not listening.' p.33

Les tres estrelles són perquè provoca-el-pensament, perquè crida el pensament a pensar, a posar per escrit una crítica decent d'aquest text. Pauline Oliveros és potser paradigmàtica del feminisme del segle XX i els seus dinamismes: de fet, el text ens du, aparentment sense contradicció, de la posició hippie a la ciborgiana més naïf. I encara en escriure-ho, me n'adono que també el moviment hippie és profundament naïf i que, per tant, l'escriptora mateixa ho és: o bé, que habita en un espai d'il·lusió de canvi.

Oliveros ens presenta l'escolta quàntica, i ho fa en relació o per oposició a sentir —on sentir és inconscient o involuntari i escoltar és actiu i libidinal. D'acord amb Oliveros,

"Compassion (spiritual development) and understanding comes from listening impartially to the whole space/time of sound impartially, not just what one is presently concerned about." p.20

Durant els anys seixanta i setanta, Oliveros crearà música, rituals musicals, amb "humanitarian purposes; specifically healing", dedicant els seus concerts a "an end to violence". I és que per aquesta,

"Deep Listening is a foundation for a radically transformed social matrix in which compassion and love are the core motivating principles guiding creative decision making and our actions in the world." p.23

Així, la música d'Oliveros té una dimensió hipotèticament revolucionària: d'acord amb aquesta, la seva escolta atenta hauria de dur a l'establiment d'un mode d'existència harmònic, ecol·lògic, pacifista. Oliveros és platònica, en tant que atribueix a la música una potència social decisiva:

- We rejoice in the pleasure of music that we know and love. Community develops around music. Critical response, discernment and education helps to shape and conserve musical values. Unfamiliar contemporary music tests values, challenges habits, helps to create new thought patterns and expanded awareness. We need an improvatory of music" to balance the conservatory and promote the creation of music. Youth culture is transforming music and creating new values across cultural divides. DJs are remixing the artifacts of recorded music cultures as performances. p.45-6

D'acord amb D&G tot territori es conforma i cristal·litza sota un ritornello, sota una tonada concreta, codificada, amb possibles petites variacions individuals, però generalment reconeixible. L'exèrcit no és anterior a l'himne, sinó que és l'himne qui finalment unifica els cossos cooptats i els transporta a un nou territori més enllà de la moral. El sistema modern d'Estat-nació no és anterior als seus contes, als seus mites, a les seves narratives i promeses, a les seves cançons tradicionals: obté la seva unitat i legitimitat, precisament, de la seva infiltració en les ments d'un poble anterior a aquest, el qual coopta. Plató dedica algunes pàgines de la República a censurar certs tipus d'instruments, de lletres musicals, en tant que contribueixen a la cohesió social i els valors patriarcals o no ho fan. Volem afirmar que cert tipus de música apel·la a certs tipus de cossos, que són convocats i finalment alliberats per aquesta. El somni d'Oliveros és el de crear una música capaç de dur el món a una pau pacifista: tot i naïf, és legítim. Observarem amb tristesa, però, com la indústria musical i la digitalització d'aquesta, juntament amb les plataformes d'streaming i els auriculars, impedeixen a la música la seva tasca revolucionària: fins i tot el Bella Ciao és un himne emasculat.

Oliveros somia —i ho fa citant a Raymond Kurzweil— en un futur ciborgià on l'escolta humana s'haurà potenciat tant que serà capaç de fites impensables: ampliació de les ones a captar, selecció específica, Oliveros creu que el futur ens depara una percepció millorada que facilitarà l'escolta profunda:

- What does a bat hear as it swoops and dives through the air, sounding its prey to locate it? Would you like to zoom into a waterfall to hear individual sounds of the falling drops? Would you like to hear the sound of a cell dividing in your own body? The sound of blood coursing through your veins as you monitor your own health? How about discerning the exact distance of sounds with an internal molecular computer? What are the sounds of the gasses in deep space? All of this enhancement to hearing is already available with outboard equipment: microphones, amplifiers, speakers. Surveillance by spies is quite sophisticated. What if such equipment were available as onboard, internal equipment through microscopic, ingested technology? (Never mind implants - they will be outdated.)
How would you want to use your newly enhanced ear power? How could humanity handle such power? p.48

En aquest moment històric, la qüestió ha deixat de ser si la fantasia ciborgiana és acceptable —som sempre-ja cyborgs, d'acord amb el Manifest cyborg de Haraway—, sinó quins són els seus límits, quin món volem construir com a cyborgs. La potenciació de l'escolta tindria lloc per tal de captar els desitjos d'altres vivents, de composar-nos-hi, o només per a conèixer-los millor per tal d'eliminar-los amb més facilitat? No implica el risc extrem de vigilància interna? En el seu extrem, Oliveros ens parla de

- Enter the Chip Monk! Will spirituality evolve on a microchip with the programed essence of the best of our world religions available to all? Could the Chip Monk be ingested to assist one's inner monk in the practice of deep ecumenism and the distillation of universal truth? p.50

la presència perversa d'un implant que ens guiaria cap a la pau eterna, cristiana, budista, kantiana. Potser és en aquest punt on el terror es fa patent, on el dogmatisme esdevé insuportable. Això no vol dir que la pràctica d'escolta profunda no sigui, a un nivell menys desenvolupat, interessant:

The devaluation of hearing through unconsciousness and ignorance has caused a serious imbalance in the quality of life. Suppression of listening is a consequence of this imbalance. Separation and alienation results. How we attend to this imbalance will have a profound influence on the future of human values. [...] Quantum Listening is listening to our listening. The field expands to embrace all kinds of listening, with openness to all possibilities. [...] The key to multi-level existence is Deep Listening - listening in as many ways as possible, to everything that can possibly be heard, all of the time. Deep Listening is exploring the relationships among any and all sounds, whether natural or technological, intended or unintended, real, remembered or imaginary. Thought is included.
Deep Listening includes all sounds expanding the boundaries of perception. In this concept is language and the nature of its sound, as well as natural sound and technological sound.
Deep Listening also includes the environmental and atmospheric context of sound. p.37-51

D'acord amb Oliveros, l'escolta profunda implica un subjecte actiu que lliga el que escolta -i identifica- en cert instant de l'espai-temps amb el que -imagina- escolta en la totalitat del planeta en tal instant. És a dir, és una escolta relacional: què escolto? amb què està en relació, i què exclou a sonar, això que escolto? quins altres sorolls impliquen l'existència d'això que escolto? Ara mateix, que escolto la rentadora, el soroll del meu teclat, les veus d'uns turistes i el motor d'un gran aparell d'aire condicionat em poso la pregunta: són els sorolls vius i canviants o morts i determinats? de quina manera m'apel·len, m'atrauen o m'expulsen del món? són sorolls amb qui vull construir món? quins sorolls impliquen la construcció d'una rentadora? quines màquines calen per a l'extracció dels minerals que comporta la construcció de la rentadora, de l'aire condicionat, de l'avió que ha transportat els turistes? en quin llenguatge parlen els turistes, en quin no parlen, i de quines condicions econòmiques globals em parla això?

- Listening is directing attention to what is heard, gathering meaning, interpreting and deciding on action. Quantum Listening is listening to more than one reality simultaneously. [...] Quantum Listening is listening in as many ways as possible simultaneously - changing and being changed by the listening. I see and hear life as a grand improvisation - I stay open to the world of possibilities for interplay in the quantum field with self and others - community - society - the world- the universe and beyond. p.30-31

L'escolta profunda remet, és clar, al Fonocè de Despret, als nous estudis d'antropologia, etnografia, biologia, filosofia més-que-humana. Quan Oliveros desitja que els nous instruments d'escolta ens permetin accedir al desig del ratpenat, recordem que la intel·ligència artificial està ajudant a descodificar el cant de les balenes. El text roman pol·lèmic, i per això encara rellevant.

[Diego Amaya · Rating 2 out of 5]

I wonder how many books (at least the two I read) has Pauline Oliveros written basically saying “guys I think we should listen more to the birds”.

I wish she talked more about the practice itself (only two pages that resemble a cooking recipe) instead of talking about spiritual nanobots that will help us tune into the bigger self (wtf?)

[pier · Rating 5 out of 5]

amazing

[Leon · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wish there were a little more substance; as opposed to the incessant advertising of Deep Listening(TM), It sort of makes it feel like you’re being indoctrinated and inducted into a kind of listening cult. Which is a shame because once it gets going and away from the unabashed self-plug, it is genuinely thought provoking. There are some quite esoteric ideas that are only briefly mentioned seemingly with assumption that the reader already understands these heady topics.

However, Oliveros is one of the great innovators of our time and her contributions to the cultural canon remain undeniable.