02

Mission

We are living in an increasingly noisy world. Between how we spend our time - where the majority of our waking hours is spent absorbing an ever increasing inflow of visual media; and where we spend it - usually surrounded by loud noise pollution; we are living in an attention economy, with a barrage of voices competing for as much of our time as possible.

This has given rise to what John Connell refers to as “an information-as-entertainment culture that defers to immediacy over depth, sound-bites over full narratives, convenience over quality, novelty over the familiar, shock over nuance, and titillation over reflection.” This overload makes us feel increasingly alienated from ourselves and disconnected from others, and has not only consequences on our personal health and well-being, but also on that of society at large.

Training our attention and in particular our ability to listen is the prelude to reclaiming our shared sense of humanity, fostering our health and well-being, communicating more compassionately and intelligently, and addressing the growing social and environmental challenges we are facing. Our sense of hearing, by its primacy in our development, much higher acuity and resolution in comparison with other senses, and direct connection with our emotional world, has the potential of playing a special role in this quest.