In Pursuit of Silence Page #5

the silence of nature.

(INDISTINCT)

(INDISTINCT)

(YOSHIFUMI MIYAZAKI

SPEAKING JAPANESE)

Historically the forest

has been understood

simply as a "nice and

relaxing place to go"

based on our experience.

However, it's more than that.

It's preventive medicine.

The forest's healing effect

comes with the ability

to prevent illness.

(BOTH SPEAKING JAPANESE)

(MIYAZAKI SPEAKING JAPANESE)

It's not that it will

cure the illness,

but it will reduce stress and

strengthen the immune system,

preventing people

from getting sick.

What is central to this

whole situation we live in

is silence.

And that the sounds

that we notice

are merely bubbles on the

surface of silence that burst.

(BELL TOLLING)

(BEEPING)

- (LAUGHING)

- (RUMBLING)

(PHONE RINGING)

(DISTORTED MUSIC)

(BLARING)

(BARKING)

(CRYING)

(STATIC)

(SQUEAKING)

(RINGING)

(WHIRRING)

Silence doesn't really exist.

Silence is sounds.

If I stop talking, for instance,

now we hear

the sounds of Sixth Avenue.

Sound is affecting

our brain waves,

our heart rate, our breathing,

our hormone secretions.

All of our physical rhythms

are being affected by sound

outside us all the time.

A sudden noise, for example...

So, anybody watching that

probably had a little shot of

cortisol, fight/flight hormone.

And that happens to us

a lot in cities.

On the other hand,

if you imagine surf,

that would calm you down,

in fact even send you to sleep.

Many people will

go to sleep to surf.

So, physiologically

sound affects us,

that's the first way.

Second is psychologically.

It changes our mood,

our feelings.

Music does that.

So do other things,

like birdsong.

The third way that sound

affects us is cognitively.

So, you can't understand two

people talking at the same time.

We've got a huge

storage space in our brain,

but the auditory input channel

is quite limited

in its bandwidth.

Roughly 1.6 human conversations.

Of course, we have no ear-lids.

- (OVERLAPPING SPEECH)

- Therefore if we're in an office

and we hear somebody talking

and they're taking up

one of our 1.6,

it doesn't leave us

with much bandwidth

to listen to our internal voice

where we're trying to

write something

or calculate something.

And the final way sound

affects us is behaviorally.

We'll move away

from unpleasant sound.

We'll move, if we can,

towards pleasant sound.

Here in London, they have about

140 Tube stations

with classical music

playing in them now

because the research has shown

that classical music

reduces vandalism.

If you put pounding music on

and you're driving,

then suddenly

you'll drive faster.

That kind of behavioral change

happens to us all the time.

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