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What does “when listening as such,not listening to something” mean? In asking this question one notices the great extent to which listening is as a rule object-oriented. I hear a car driving by, I hear the clock strike twelve, I hear somebody talking, I hear a mosquito, I hear a ship’s horn. This kind of listening is useful and convincing; it serves to identify objects and locate them in space. But to a certain extent, in listening this way, one stops listening to listening itself. Of course, in place of I hear a dog bark one can say, I hear the barking of a dog. But this is in fact a different kind of listening. Yes, the barking be- longs to the dog. It is one aspect of his presence in space. But the characteristic feature of voices, tones, sounds, is that they can be separated from their sources, or rather, they detach themselves, fill the space and wander through it much in the manner of objects. Perceiving acoustic phenomena in this way, that is, as themselves, rather than as expressions of something, demands a change of attitude.

by Gernot Böhme
Acoustic Atmospheres
A Contribution to the Study of Ecological Aesthetics
Soundscape journal number 1 spring 2000
Translated from the German by Norbert Ruebsaat