Exploring the concept of noise, developing sensitivities, and relational frequencies.

1. Noise Sensitivities:
Inviting &
Questioning Noise
Kelly Neuner (they/them) / SFPC Winter 2023 For Love & Science

2. How do we develop sensitivities to our world?
Wingspan game
From the SFPC participant intro

3. This started with birds.

4. What’s different about each sound
clip, if anything?
What did each song make you
think about or feel, if anything?

6. Thinking about noise
Personal
The noise that feels like too much
in everyday life (auditory,
informational, etc).
The noise that feels affirming,
regenerative, or transcendent in
other moments.
Professional & Creative
The absence of noise in work I
do (research & design).
How our viewpoints and ways of
seeing seek to reduce things
[outside the object being
studied] as noise.
Where noise feels energizing.

7. Thinking about noise, data,
information, & signals
Noise feels like a relational concept about
your perception of data and information
and how something resonates with you.
Perceiving signals from noise
depending on what you are sensitized or
attenuated to through life experience,
formal training, reading, exploring, feelings,
histories, collaborations, openness,
curiosity, stillness, movement...

8. Recognizing the “right” kinds of noise
“The polluted air clogging my lungs, the masses
of people clustered in close proximity yet
strangers to each other, inescapable noise of
construction or traffic… it all feels too much.
At the same time, I subliminally felt the absence
of the sights, sounds, smells, tastes & sensations
that signal community, nature, land, or safety to
my body. Amidst the bustling crowds, I felt alone
& then it hit me…
I’ve had a lot of practice insulating/ dissociating/
numbing/ isolating myself from my environment
as a byproduct of living in a capitalist society but
far less experience intentionally reaching out into
my surroundings with a desire to connect using
all my senses, the entirety of my body & soul to
fully perceive the world.”

9. Reducing exposure to the “wrong” noise to
cultivate complexity & connection
Birds develop more complex and diverse
songs in order to gain attention
“...by losing that diversity in the
soundscape amongst these species, they
may be losing ability for greater complex
cognitive communication. By reducing
the soundscape, we're reducing that next
step in the evolution of these species…
[with] fewer birds being able to pass on
knowledge that they've learned through
generations of experience and evolution”

10. Inviting noise (professional & creative)
Ecotonal thinking
“Intentionally reaching out into my surroundings with a
desire to connect using all my senses, the entirety of my
body & soul to fully perceive the world.”
Relational
rigor
Creating
ecotonal
spaces
New to
me
methods
New
partnerships
and
relationships
Where two places combine & lots of different things intermingle
Creates space for emergence and creativity to move past limiting stories
How do we create the right tools to
navigate the wilds of complexity?
Questioning
my
categorizati
ons and
reactions
New story
structures

11. “Pushing past alienating silences”
“Here in the middle of a city, when I’m not
engulfed in industrial noise, strange crowds,
bright lights & toxic fumes, I am consumed by
alienating silences.
In Bengre, “silence” still meant I continuously
heard the ocean, soothing bird calls, critters &
various fauna signaling the thriving life in our
biodiverse ecosystem, the distant laughter of
neighbors… I did not feel “alone”. Even in silence, I
was reminded that community is near & the land
is with me. These silences still signaled serenity &
belonging to my body.”

12. Inviting, questioning,
& reducing noise in the
personal
How do different noises in your
environments and ecosystems
feel to you?
What associations and
connections do you make to
them?
What noise would you like more
of? Less of?
How would you like to invite,
question, or reduce noise in
your different ecosystems
(personal, professional,
creative)?

13. To bring it
back to
birds…
Visual collection of bird sounds
50 bird species
and the sounds
they make