World Listening Project

The awareness that the WLP seeks to promote helps to understand the relationships, and find a balance between sound makers and listeners. Listening is something we do, to be experienced by making. Educational efforts combine the knowledge and experiences of science and art. In the words of the renowned bioacoustician Bernie Krause, "A few remaining societies in our vast world know how to listen. It is an inherent part of their existence – one in which the received soundscapes of the forests, high plains, deserts, mountains and coastal regions combine seamlessly with the visual, olfactory, and tactile senses. In some tropical regions, dependence on acoustic perception supersedes that of all the others. Natural soundscapes serve as the inspiration for their song and dance. It heals them physically and spiritually. Western society bases most of what it knows on the visual. We actually “hear” what we “see.” The World Listening Project aims to transform that perception in our otherwise urban centric and abstracted lives. At a time when we are facing not only a silent spring, but a silent summer, fall and winter, as well, it is clear that where a picture is worth a thousand words, a soundscape may soon be worth a thousand pictures."

Public engagement and participation in the arts and sciences are critically important. The annual World Listening Day on July 18 draws together a global community of cultural institutions and individuals who interpret and plan activities around a theme devised by an artist. We also support and endorse projects through partnerships.

Since 2015 we have been honored to have a diverse group of acclaimed sound artists and composers creating the annual theme for World Listening Day: "H2O" by Leah Barclay from Australia, “Sounds Lost and Found” by Emeka Ogboh from Nigeria, “Listening to the Ground” by Pauline Oliveros (USA 1932-2016), FUTURE LISTENING by Filipino sound artist Teresa Barrozo, and "Listening With" by Annea Lockwood from the United States. Their participation was achieved on the strength of the idea and help from our small volunteer staff.

Since its inception in 2010, dozens of organizations and thousands of people from six continents have participated in World Listening Day. Among the ways we may grow future participation is in real time tracking to offer immediate visual (maps) and audio information on where and how many are participating in World Listening Day.