Dive into the sonic soup. Listen: Making Sense of Sound, a major new 5000-square-foot Exploratorium exhibition, three years in the making, features over

Museum visitors trying the Reversed Ears exhibit

fifty-five interactive exhibits, forty of them brand new. It is on view at the Exploratorium on December 31, 2007. In the exhibition, listen as a musician does for the patterns that form the structural framework of musical composition. Or sort out the aural clues that evoke a sense of place – automatic doors and cash registers vs. teaspoons clinking against cups and espresso machines. Explore the physiological processes of hearing, human speech and communication, and take a host of sonic journeys. Combining exhibits, activities, demonstrations, specially commissioned artist-created listening environments, as well as public programs, this exhibition invites you to experience – as never before – the nature of sound, the ways in which humans perceive sound, and, most importantly, how you listen. There is even listening at home via the web at www.exploratorium.edu/listen.

Listening is an action. The act of listening in this exhibition is both the means and the ends to learning because sound, by its nature, carries information. But there are many layers of meaning. What we hear is guided by physics – vibrations, materials, space. What we hear is guided by our ears and brains – our physiology, memory, attention, listening conflicts and synergies. And finally, what we hear is filtered by who we are – our choices, culture and history. This exhibition summons them all through your ears.

Among the Explainer-led demonstrations found in the exhibition are Listening Walks, where visitors put on blindfolds to explore the rich, dynamic soundscape around them. Take a Silent Walk to experience a world without any sound at all, or cozy up to the Sound Cart, a gadget-filled station that lets you try experiments featuring a digital multitrack recorder, portable recording microphone and frequency analyzer, among other cool tools.

The Listening Guide Theater provides insights from those who have developed exceptional listening skills and heightened awareness of sound in everyday life. Wildlife tracker Doniga Markegard interprets the language of nature; Dean Hudson -- who is blind -- navigates the world acoustically; instrument builder Bart Hopkin explores the physics of sound through music; car mechanic Lisa Miller diagnoses the automobile soundscape; cochlear implant-wearer Michael Chorost listens with an electric ear; and a therapist who interprets inter-personal communication.

In addition, three sound artists specially commissioned for the exhibition lend their unique auditory perspectives in new works: Ali Momeni’s What You Said, How You Said It is a full-body interactive installation that invites you to listen, as diverse accents morph into one another. Nigel Helyer’s Listening Stick is an interactive hunt for hidden sonic gems. Michelle Nagai’s installation elicits and captures visitors’ reflections on sound, listening and the questions the exhibition provokes.

This exhibition is made possible with the support of the National Science Foundation. Additional funding comes from the National Endowment for the Arts.

See Listen: Exhibition Overview, Selected Listen New Exhibits and individual releases on the Artists-in-Residence, for further details on the exhibition.

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