The five “skilled listeners” on the “www.exploratorium.edu” website all had their own unique way they used their listening skills for their day-to-day life.
In the first video, “Listening to nature”, Doniga Markegard, a wildlife tracker and naturalist, relies on her listening skills to detect the presence of wildlife. She listens to her surroundings and listens for disturbances to try and find where an animal might be moving. Birds are the main communication for Doniga as she listens to the birds to find where other animals may be. I did not know wildlife trackers existed but watching this video of Doniga was interesting. I think it’s cool she can use her senses and her listening skills to tune into nature like she does.
In the second video, “Listening to get around”, we watch Dean Hudson, an “acoustic navigator”. Dean is a visually impaired/blind person. Dean uses audio clues to navigate the world. He listens to audio clues to know where he is in relation to the environment and which direction he needs to be headed in. To navigate the world, Dean listens to the traffic and which way cars are going and other peoples’ footsteps when crossing streets, he also listens for clues like a street singer singing and escalator bells. Many things can be distractions for a blind person trying to use audio clues, such as rain, water slushing in the street, construction, loud people and more. It was interesting to learn how a visually impaired person uses their listening skills to listen for many different audio clues to navigate the world around them.
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“Listening to make music” is the third video. In this one we watch Bart Hopkin, an experimental instrument builder. Bart creates many new, different instruments. He must use his listening skills to create these instruments by listening to the “subtle sonic qualities” of many different materials, some being wood, water, and pipes. I thought watching Bart Hopkin was quite interesting. He showed many different instruments he had made using his listening skills that were creative and unique.
The fourth video is titled, “Listening to make music”, in this video we watch Lisa Miller, who is an auto mechanic and teacher of auto shop. In this video, listening is showed to be a diagnostic tool for mechanics. Lisa uses her listening skills to listen closely to vehicles and different parts of them to figure out what is wrong with the vehicle. Lisa also teaches her auto shop students how to use their own listening skills to fix cars. I think it’s interesting to see how listening to your own car and the sounds it makes can tell you and your mechanic if something is wrong.
In the fifth and final video, “Listening to process sound”, we learn about Michael Chorost. Michael originally had impaired hearing and then became fully deaf. However, he is now able to hear again, this was made possible by a cochlear implant. A cochlear implant is a device/computer used to give deaf people the ability to listen. After getting this device, his life changed in many ones, both good and bad. Sadly, he had to learn to hear all over again. On the up side, this change in hearing allowed Michael to change his life, he chose to become a science writer, a completely new career. I was really interested in this video about Michael Chorost and his cochlear implant. I think these devices are wonderful inventions for deaf people, giving someone the ability to hear the world either again or for the first time is quite amazing.
