Deep Listening Exercise and reflection

Overview

This assignment is adapted from Pauline Oliveross Deep Listening practices. It is designed to develop your capacity to listen inclusively, noticing the full spectrum of sound around you, and to reflect on how listening can shape perception, memory, and imagination.

Instructions

Choose a public location (e.g., a park, mall, or campus space). Record the time, date, and place.

Sit silently and listen for 510 minutes. Do not speak or make sound.

Make a recording of the soundscape (using your phone or another device) while you listen.

Keep a listening journal. While listening, write down every sound you notice in as much detail as possible qualities, textures, rhythms, silences, your feelings, memories, or associations. This can be descriptive, poetic, or visual (drawings, fragments, collages are acceptable).

Write a reflection essay (approximately 500 words). In your reflection:

Describe what you heard and how it made you feel.

Relate your experience to Oliveross concepts of deep listening.

Consider how listening engaged not only with external sounds (traffic, voices, birds, machinery, silence, etc.) but also with your imagination or memory.

Reflect on the relationship between yourself, the space, and the sounds you encountered.

Submission Requirements

The audio recording (510 minutes).

A scan or photo of your listening journal entry.

A approximately 500 word reflection essay (typed, PDF).