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Radiolab / July 02, 2004

Radiolab

Friday, July 02, 2004
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  • John Cage
    John Cage

    Noise Pollution vs Silence

    In a 1937 lecture on the future of music, John Cage said: "Wherever we are, what we hear is mostly noise. When we ignore it, it disturbs us. When we listen to it, we find it fascinating. The sound of a truck at 50 m.p.h. Static between the stations. Rain. We want to capture and control these sounds, to use them, not as sound effects, but as musical instruments.

Cage, Indeterminacy

We start this week's Radio Lab with anecdotes and personal philosophies on the nature of noise from one of 20th-century America’s great musical innovators, John Cage.

» More on John Cage
» Indeterminacy

Noise Cancellation - NCT Group Inc.

We stop profile a Connecticut company who claims their technology can make our world (or at least the vacuum and car) half as noisy. The problem: no one seems to be listening.

» NCT Group Incorporated

The Hum, The Buzz, The Honk

It's everywhere, it's pervasive, there's more and more of it each day, and we're slowly growing deaf because of it. Next Big Thing Producer Curtis Fox takes on the exponential growth of noise pollution and the dwindling utopia of peace and quiet in New York City.

Producer: Curtis Fox
Aired originally on WNYC's The Next Big Thing

» The Soundscape of New York City in the 1930's
» The Next Big Thing

The Koolman Repertoire, Reinvisioned

Sound artist Erin McGonigle shares her latest project: a collection of sounds that may, this summer, make into the ice cream truck music box.

» e-Xplo

Sound Laser

Imagine a world where coke machines whisper in your ear, and where a noise can knock you down from 500 feet away. Meet audio engineer Woody Norris. He’s done to sound what the laser did to light.

» See a Popular Science article on the sound laser
» Go to American Technology Corporation’s website

San Francisco Bay Area Sound Artists Unite!

The Left Coast has fast become the sound art capital of America. Musicians Aaron Ximm, Scott Arford, Jon Brumit recycle the often unpleasant city soundscape into beautiful music.

» quietamerican.org
» More on Scott Artford
» More on Jon Brumit

Speech Acts

Tripura and Om met almost twenty years ago , and for the first year of their relationship, they didn't speak a word to each other . This was no lightweight experience. Om was a monk and had taken a vow of silence. Producer Joan Schuman interweaves their stories into this sound-text portrait of silence.

Producer: Joan Schuman
Aired originally on WNYC's The Next Big Thing

» Third Coast Festival
» More on Joan Scuman

Cat Call

A dispatch from the frontlines of the war on Cat-Calling, a type of noise pollution many women know all too well. Producer: Elaine Heinzman

This program was produced by Miyuki Yokiranta, with help from Jennie Schneier, Ellen Horne, Rene Tsao and Trent Wolbe.