Write what each of those words mean to you and how they function in either your everyday life or when you are at a gig/listening to a work of sound art.

As Pauline Oliveros said: “The ear hears, the brain listens” it won’t surprise us that there is a big difference between hearing and listening. Hearing is a constantly active sense with which the human being and animals have been gifted, is the ability we have to decode sound waves through our ears and tympanum to the brain, and transform it into sound. This feature never stops, you can’t stop hearing unless you cover your ears and still really difficult not to receive some sound if this sound is loud enough. Listening is much different, now that we are hearing something, if we keep attention into it and get some information or benefit from this sound, then we are listening to it. Like when we listen to a voice or a piece of music, we’re not just letting the sound go through our eardrum, we are focusing on it and often enjoying it.

If I’m listening to my favourite song at gig I might be listening to the music but maybe someone comes to me with a good conversation so I could switch and listen to that person in first instance, so I’d leave the music is the background and I would start to just hear to my favourite song, as I’m not keeping the attention on it anymore. At the end of the day both actions complement each other, they might come together sometimes but we as sound enthusiasts should be able to difference and analyse them on every occasion.