Submitted on 17 May 2012 | 13:03:24

To gather a group of peolpe for this purpose is indeed a performance. Neither they, nor the audience were there accidentally, nor were they sitting about casually like in the foyer, but for the expressed purpose of experiencing for a specific time, the absence of willed sound. Not the absence of all sound, like that of profound deafness, but something profoundly different. It may well have been the first time for many of them, that they have listened, really listened, to silence.I was as fascinated by the images of willed inaction and active listening, as I was of my own heightened awareness to incidental sound. I couldn't look away from the video. Did they realize, themselves, that they were doing so much? No performer was simply not playing, they were actively not playing. That's why the piece had timed movements, to focus attention on the silence so framed.Ever heard the sea' in a seashell? It's only the reflected sound of your own body. Perhaps that's what makes silence uncomfortable to many. Take away willed sound (voices, TV, music), and one is left with the reflection of one's own self. That can be hard to take, full of the tension that was mentioned in the video, hence the constant seeking for outside distractions. I've seen my children's grandmother take them outside on a quiet day, and say what do you hear?' At first, of course, they say nothing'. Eventually though, they hear a great deal more .I'm glad these peolpe had a chance to touch the same experience.