silence & NOISE

Silence and noise are completely opposite concepts that are very much dependent on one another. While noise is some type sound that has the negative connotation of being bad or unpleasant, silence is the complete absence of any sound whatsoever. In most cases, the beauty that can be perceived in silence is due to a recent presence of noise. Otherwise, silence is described as deafening and lonely. Silence almost needs noise and vice versa.

 Without silent intermissions, things that are noise would eventually go unnoticed. When there is a constant noise stimulus, we have a tendency to unintentionally (or sometimes intentionally) tune it out. This happens due to a mechanism in the brain called habituation. When a stimulus is constantly present, it turns off the center that makes you aware that it’s there. If it’s been happening for so long, it’s not as necessary to be completely aware of it, but once something breaks the pattern, we become aware of it again. Noise would have no effect if the silence hadn’t broken the pattern and caused for sensitization, the process of the brain becoming aware of a stimuli. In physics, we see that sound, or in this case noise, is the result of many waves. Wave of different frequencies form points called nodes, which are basically the silence within the sound waves. So we see that not only are they codependent, but silence in a sense defines the noise.

The way Mallarme uses spacing in his poem can be seen as the silence on the page. When read aloud, the spaces create pauses and long stops in the midst of all the words and noise. These pauses provide the tone and context and bring the reader into a different realm of thought. They make the poem so beautiful, that even though the literal meaning of the poem is unclear, the large aesthetic value is rooted in the silence. Silence is something that should be appreciated and valued just as much as noise is. Mallarme shows that to us and then John Cage sought to show us that in a different way. In his lecture on nothing, he uses a lot of space between clauses and punctuations to prove this point. We dwell on the silence, imagining how long it would be and imagining how much it means in the work. At the same time, we focus more on the clauses, each seeming to provoke a different feeling and meaning although in the same line. The clauses of noise create the feeling that is behind the decision of how long the pause should take place. He himself said that the words help make the silences. So we see, once again, the necessity of silence for noise, and the necessity for noise in defining the silence.

This brings us to wonder, is there really such thing as silence? Without silence, noise will have no meaning. It is the silence that creates the definitive clauses that would be considered noise. These statements can also be flipped. One cannot exist without the other.