Five decades ago,the philosopher Max Picard warned: “Nothing has changed human nature more than the loss of silence.”
• In the 21st century, Ed Schlossberg, creator of ESI Design,a company dedicated to making innovative design spaces,has stated that “attention will be the most scarce and precious asset in the future”.
• Paying attention to a single object, stopping receiving information for an instant, consuming content, images, sounds, alerts, calls is almost impossible today.
We use the new technologies that connect us to the world of messages, tweets, Facebook posts, Google alerts, mobile phone alarms, news from our RSS feeds, Whatsapp invocations, 24 hours a day, wherever we are.
• Only when we get on the plane and the stewardess forces us to turn off our electronic devices, can we afford to feel us, alone. But then we avidly look for what movie they are going to put on.
• Schlossberg says he longs for the times when art offered a space for silence and attention. The static frame and the motionless spectator held together, exchanging radiation in the visible spectrum,without emitting a single noise. Contemplation is a luxury from another era…
✅The human being has owned silence for more than a million years.
Stillness and the absence of noise are part of the natural landscape as are the wind or the sky. We have adapted to silence, and without it we could not survive. So much so that, although it may seem like a lie, we can hear it…
— Steven Melbourne, from “Silence” in Abstract Universe
Notes:
- Quote – Thank you Beth @ Alive on All Channels
- Photo: Thomas Leuthard
Live & Learn 
being stuck in a long power outage has reminded me of this. the silence without electronics has a beautiful rhythm to it. when i want to use my electronics, i have to walk to a place where i can charge up and get wi-fi, and it the opposite of the usual days, where you have to walk to find silence.
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Yes. Only then, freedom.
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Amen 🙏🏻
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🙂
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I choose my Luddite status, and think I’m saner as a result. Perhaps having been a slave to technology throughout my career, the luxury of unlearning came quite easily. I don’t find it as satisfying as the music of silence.
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I happen to agree. But still, can’t cut that cord.
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Patience, Grasshopper…(not your long suit, I know, but clearly if you’re able to get the fantastic shots you post, then somewhere you have patience…🥴)
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Smiling. There’s hope!
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Now I would go to a museum that featured silence…
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Ah, I never broke it down before, but silence or at least respectful quiet (and lack of frenetic activity) is why public libraries and book stores are so inviting. This post also made me realize (immediately!) that one can experience the background quiet in Emily Dickinson’s every poem! ❤
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Yes!
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Especially there!
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For me there is nothing more profoundly fulfilling than the charged silence I find standing in front of a favorite piece of art–letting myself fall into the color space of a Rothko, thrilling at the splendor of a Dutch merchant’s household through a 17th-century still life, melting into the magic of a night sky by Van Gogh, or feeling the clenching in my gut as I gaze at the doomed passengers on Gericault’s ‘The Raft of the Medusa.’ It is in those silent moments of reflection that I feel most alive and connected with the world.
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Beautiful. Swept away!
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Reblogged this on It Is What It Is and commented:
Please, read all … “Stillness and the absence of noise are part of the natural landscape as are the wind or the sky. We have adapted to silence, and without it we could not survive. So much so that, although it may seem like a lie, we can hear it … ” — Steven Melbourne, from “Silence” in Abstract Universe.
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Great post 👍👍
We really experienced the outer and inner silence when we sat in the Rothko room of the Tate Modern. Very meditative. We feel that in our sauna as well.
Do you know Kagge’s book about silence (“Silence”). See
https://fabfourblog.com/2018/11/08/silence/
or see
https://fabfourblog.com/2016/10/13/discovery-of-silence/
We think silence is most important in communication.
And now we disappear in our sauna.
All the best
The Fab Four of Cley
🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂
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Read Kagges’ book Silence and loved it. Thanks!
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This is so profound. When I was on safari in Kenya the strongest impression I had was of the silence. It was so powerful that no one dared to speak, not even to whisper. I’m not religious, but I would say it was a spiritual force.
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I can see (and feel) that Darlene. Must have been Something.
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Thomas Leuthard’s photo captures solitude, the black and white emphasizes, stillness & quite…I think it he would have cropped the photo tighter obscuring the village along the waters edge, the image would have made it absolutely perfect for inviting one to sit a spell in that chair among the beauty enveloped in silence… /// What Steven Melbourne & Ed Schlossberg say in this share I know is the reality of many…though for me and my hubby we are what many would say being left behind as we are not up with technologies…we use the internet for reading, watching, listening, paying bills and emails (ugh even the one I didn’t expect this morning from the Oncologist’s office thankfully just a reminder ) (no social media)…no smart cells…hubby has an old flip phone he doesn’t know how to text…my old phone is used for occasional text, calls, doesn’t accept messages & very rare morning alarm…I can take a tiny photo which can’t be sent & can’t be enlarged…We still have a land line/cable which accepts messages…We don’t fly, we don’t use the car gps…We watch tv , listen to music and listen to the radio daily…Today we are Enjoying a Break in the Summer Long Heat Wave!!! so no drone of the window A/C and the fans…wish my ears were not ringing!!! We sit in the garden early morning and later evening…we love watching the birds, the bees, the bats, delighted when the owl stops by & the chipmunk, squirrels, hawk moth & baby possums …we enjoy the flowers, the fruit and veggies, the quite except for the loveliness of nature’s gifts of sound & fragrance ..we don’t like it when noisy vehicles drive past or neighbors goings on…but then the neighborhood’s goings on remind us of life & growth…one of the little girl neighbors has the most darling little voice & she has improved on her playing of the recorder this summer…PS we miss the vacations to the remote spots…with the fires and covid – we stay home and we are thankful to have a home filled with love…where the daughter continues with her years long quest of developing a new tomato variety, the pup and the cats frolic and sleep and the dear hubby rests his eyes just a bit in his lounge chair…
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Makes me (fondly) think of an old upload on Flickr….. about the anagram of LISTEN – SILENCE. I am a born ‘talker’ but also a accomplished listener. Yep, you can be both and I wouldn’t be so busy ‘being there’ for others if I didn’t have the ability to deeply listen.
Both photo and prose are a god-sent right now, when we dare going ‘out’ again w/o fear, inviting guests, frolicking at the lakeshore, having a meal in a restaurant, do stuff…..
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Do stuff! Yes!
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