A communal listening experience can decrease social anxiety and boost empathy. An artist is collaborating with high school teens to create a “Sound Lab” at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston. The Sound Lab gives community members the opportunity to listen to recordings that the high school teens made of their families, nature, and their own original monologues. The teens found that listening to their recordings with community members in the Gardner’s concert hall had a stronger emotional impact than listening alone. Engaging with the Sound Lab may help people to pay more attention to the sounds that surround them everyday. Listen to learn more about this sound project and its impact on teens and the community.
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January 18, 2017
4:51
For people who are visually impaired, many of the experiences sighted people take for granted aren’t available, such as going to an art museum. Now, the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington, D.C. are offering special tours to help blind and visually impaired visitors “see” the art. This story takes you on a tour with this unique group of visitors.
Read MoreJanuary 7, 2016
3:16
The MoonArk is a time capsule that will be sent to the moon on a privately-funded Moon mission. It is filled with items that will attempt to communicate to whomever finds it and show a portrait of humanity. Two hundred artists and designers contributed to the capsule and the items are unique, including a spritz of perfume, sculptures so small you need a microscope to see them and text messages. Listen to hear more about this artistic time capsule.
Read MoreDecember 21, 2015
7:18
Our brains are finely tuned to use sound to interpret what goes on around us. We are surrounded by sounds telling us something. People can hear 20-100 times faster than they see, and animals use sound to function as well as talk to each other. Hearing sounds is critical to safety and survival. Listen to hear about the many places, including space, where sounds can be found, and how listening is a tool for understanding the world.
Read MoreNovember 19, 2014
5:28
For many, Henry David Thoreau is best know for his 1854 experiment in simplicity, living in the woods of Massachusetts on Walden Pond. The resulting book 'Walden, or Life in the Woods,' has connected generations of readers to Thoreau's vision of self-reliance, closeness to nature, and transcendentalism. An art museum located near Walden Pond has launched a show, Walden Revisited, with works inspired by and responding to Thoreau’s work.
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