THE UNBEARABLE VOLUME OF SILENCE | Dagmara Wyskiel Soundwalk with Fernando Godoy Village of Caspana, Alto El Loa, Antofagasta region We are used to hearing the voice of strangers as well as our own voice, filling the environment with sound codes only understandable for those who speak the same language. In this sense, the soundwalk is universal. Refraining from emitting sounds is a rare experience. It seems like talk relaxes us, numbs us, dumbs us, makes us sleep. Its effect is similar to what the vacuum cleaner does for newborns. It is said that the continuous and constant noise reminds them of the sounds of amniotic liquid and the warm and safe world inside the mother. Something similar happens to adults. We are afraid of silence, it makes us feel uncomfortable. During the soundwalk thoughts are given too much room to roam, they resonate inside and it becomes much harder to put them in order. Unspoken ideas do what they want, until you are able to dominate them and focus on listening. On thinking about what you hear. On pure attention. After hearing comes smell, touch and vision. A soundwalk is a sensory journey back to the times when man walked alone through his ancestral habitat: the forest, the mountains, the beach, the desert. Indigenous people talk less than we do. Probably because they haven’t lost the habit of listening. 168
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