In Pursuit of Silence Page #5

low-noise technology

across over 35 categories

of product design,

and also solutions

to unwanted noise.

Everything from home appliances,

airplanes, cars,

to the way we build houses

with the materials.

I think ultimately consumers

want more peace and quiet.

And we've reached a point where

we have got so many

extraordinary layers

of technology around us

helping us,

like a technology golden age,

but the noise of those

machines have become

almost too much for us

to really cope with,

or we don't really know

what we're coping with.

(WHIRRING)

LEES:
A lot of items

are made these days

without an awareness

of their volume.

You put them all together,

it's a cacophony,

it's not a symphony.

We made this car the smallest

mobile anechoic chamber.

We put a lot of effort

in modifying the materials

which are used in the car

to get a very quiet and relaxing

atmosphere in the car.

MAN:
It's not only the design

outside the appliances,

it's not only

the user interface,

it's the whole package,

and sound is very important

these days

for the whole package.

It's not only

the decibels we measure,

but it's also the quality

of the sound we measure.

WOMAN:
We are hoping

that we can reduce

our noise impact,

through our aircraft,

for the people

in our neighborhoods

by 75% by 2020.

(SPEAKING JAPANESE)

(MUTED)

ROSS:

Silence is available to everyone

and it is never too late

to seek silence.

It isn't true that it's

a rich man's plaything.

If you really want to learn

the worth of silence,

then you will use your ingenuity

to find a place and a time

for that silence.

CAGE:
All of us have changed

in the time since 4'33" was

first made in the early '50s.

We have less...

We have less confidence.

Now in time,

as it goes into the future,

we wonder, for instance,

how long the future will be.

We don't take for granted

that it will be forever.

We wonder whether we've...

You might say, we wonder

whether we have

ruined the silence.

(APPLAUSE)

LARSON:
4'33 has been performed

all over the world

in all kinds of circumstances.

Some of them very casual,

some of them,

like Carnegie Hall, very formal.

But people

now respect this piece.

People sit very quietly for it.

It's as though without knowing

anything about Cage's history

and why he came

to this realization,

it's as though people

get a piece

of that realization themselves.

"Oh, yeah, four minutes and

33 seconds of meditation

"in which everyone

is silent together."

It's the most

extraordinary thing,

to be in a place

where it's being performed.

What you feel

is the entire audience

just listening to absolutely

everything that happens.

You just sense

this breathing organism

of people and this place,

sharing this moment.

(LOUD APPLAUSE)

COMMENTATOR:

Well, that's one of the most

extraordinary performances

I've ever experienced

here in the Barbican Hall.

4'33" by John Cage.

ROSS:
If we could all learn

the work of silence,

we'd take an awful lot

of pressure off of our planet.

There wouldn't be this constant

seeking, seeking, seeking

for something else

to fill up that empty space,

when what will fill up

the empty space

is actually going

into the empty space.

We do need to adjust

to our environment.

We also need to learn

to be able to be silent

and to draw on

the Wellspring of silence

when the environment

isn't conducive to silence.

IYER:
In a world of movement,

stillness has become

a great luxury,

and in a world of distraction,

it's attention that

we're hungering for.

And in a world of noise,

silence calls us

like a beautiful piece of music

on the far side

of the mountains.

ROSS:

It's not some kind of exoticism,

esoteric practices

in a coded language.

It's as simple as

shifting your attention

from the things that

cause noise in your life

to the vast

interior spaciousness

which is our natural silence.

It's this process of ungrasping,

it's the process

of opening your hand,

it's the process of

unclenching a fist.

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