Blog Post #3 - Ella Fitzpatrick

There are a lot of complex things that come with "noise" and sound". In the reading "Silence and Noise" by Richard Rath, we read about a man name John Cade who discovered that could hear hear his own heartbeat and nervous in a room that is completely silent. Another artist named Raven Chacon, decided to record silence in places that are quiet. This was to show that different places have their own unique sound that shows that silence does have noise. Noise is something we hear but it can also be sounds that do't have meaning, sounds that are unwanted, or sounds that help feel calmness. Noise can often to be used to make "silence", an example of this is noise-cancelling headphones. Depending on social views, what someone's perspective of noise may be someone's music. Noise can be whatever society considers it to be at anytime or anywhere so silence may not actually exist. 

Noise and silence are not truly opposites. No matter how hard you try to find silence, there will always be noise to break it. And with noise, there is always silence somewhere. John Cage shows that if we pay attention to noise, it can become meaningful sound or music. Music is a product of culture and society that lives in the areas between sound and silence. This concept is applicable to all sounds, not just music. Our perception of what we consider noise or silence is influenced by our listening habits. As Cage discusses how noise can turn into a meaningful sound or music through the way we pay attention to it, Pontypool shows how words that are used everyday can change into something dangerous when we view the meaning of the word differently.