The World Listening Project (WLP)’s goal is to educate and raise awareness of our sonic environment both as a source of information and aesthetic enjoyment. Listening is basic to the health and survival of all life on Earth. Listening is a complex way to know and understand our world. In some human societies listening is under-valued and under-used. As a result, individuals and societies succumb to a range of negative impacts that include psychological and cultural disconnection, and misunderstanding, with measurable outcomes including hearing loss and destruction of natural habitats. “When we stop listening, noise happens,” said R. Murray Schafer (b. Sarnia, Ontario, Canada 18 July, 1933, d. 14 August, 2021).
Our soundscape is a resource and humans have immense power and impact upon it.
World Listening Project Goals
- Celebrate the listening practices of the world and the ecology of its acoustic environments.
- Design and implement educational initiatives that explore these concepts and practices.
- Raise awareness about the growing number of individual and group efforts that creatively explore Acoustic Ecology based on the pioneering efforts of the World Soundscape Project, leading to the contemporary efforts of the World Forum for Acoustic Ecology, Center for Deep Listening, La Semaine Du Son, SVARAM, Biosphere Soundscapes, Sounding Out!, aporee maps, Locus Sonus Soundmap and other ear-minded organizations, publication and public projects.
- Each year a new World Listening Day theme is created by an artist or researcher to encourage local communities to design and execute their programming on July 18, the birthdate of R. Murray Schafer, and to share documentation or digital artifacts created on that day.
The World Listening Project, founded in 2008, is a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt charitable organization based in the U.S.A. All donations are deemed tax-deductible absent any limitations on deductibility applicable to a particular taxpayer.
Our Board of Directors consists of esteemed artists and scientists active around the world who volunteer to govern the WLP’s staff and program’s.
To learn more about our mission and become involved in the WLP’s activities, explore this website, and please subscribe to our discussion group, follow us on Twitter, Vimeo, and “Like” our Facebook Page.