[ISEA95] Paper: Hildegard Westerkamp — Panel Statement

Panel Statement

Panel: Sounding Out Genders

There is a complex and mysterious place between a sound and the listener’s experience of it. A quiet place perhaps, or a noisy one. Perhaps a psychic playing field, where anything can happen. Isn’t it the place where the feminine within each of us or within a whole culture receives sonic events differently than the masculine? How on earth can these differences be defined in words? And can they be distinguished from other ones (physical, technological, social, religious, political, environmental, etc.)? Or shall we pay attention to the playing field itself: listening to the listening?

  • Hildegard Westerkamp (Canada) has been the editor of The Soundscape newsletter since 1991 and is a founding member of the World Forum for Acoustic Ecology.