LISTENING IN LEISURE: ENACTING CHORA TO CULTIVATE UNDERSTANDING

Abstract

Listening can be difficult in our face-paced, technology-integrated, globally sophisticated environment these days but I am not convinced that it is a lost art—we just need to find a way to reorient and reengage our aesthetic sensibilities amidst a sea of distractions and entanglements that dissuade our capacities to listen, observe, reflect, and act. We know that our attention spans are constantly under attack from a variety of phenomena especially in crowded cities and from technologies designed to serve us with instant satisfactions (Jackson, 2009). Even when we escape these distracting environments, it takes a long time to feel relaxed or not rushed or we do not know how to relax or slow down (Honore, 2009). Listening as an art is a practice that has its challenges, but we can mindfully overcome them. Our understanding of listening has evolved and shifted over time; it has also been challenged by advancements in the complex technological landscapes that permeate existence (Nichols, 2009). In the land of distractions, understanding listening within a web of appearances, disappearances, as well as negotiating auditory perceptions within presences and absences, we have hard work before us. Even within this landscape, we are bombarded with text and image distractions that only give us part of what is real. Listening to sound, engaging in an auditory sense should no longer be a last resort or take a back seat to our other senses. While we know text and images have their own limits and deceptions, auditory perceptions can enhance our communicative understandings and fill in more of the picture or context so we broaden our awareness and understanding. Though, this is not easy. This issue foregrounds proxemics, the spatial dimensions of listening. Spatial dimensions not only matter in listening contexts but understanding listening through the spatial dimension of leisure allows for expanded comprehension and ensures interpretive possibilities evolve and remain open instead of narrowing to the point of concretely closing. Exploring the threads of spatiality in each of the contributor essays in this volume and considering spatial dimensions through the lens of Greek philosophy can open our understanding of listening in the space of leisure. The Ancient Greeks did not make a strong distinction between space and place but they did refer to three conceptions of space: topos, chora, and kenon (Lenhart, 2011). Aristotle understood topos as referring to a particular place or location. Chora, on the other hand, referred to a general sense of place (Lenhart, 2011). Kenon refers to nonspace or emptiness of space (Lenhart, 2011). Even though topos denotes a specific place, it does not provide a sense of an