22. August 2022, 09:05
Sometimes, late in the evening in the Viennese Funkhaus, it can happen that on the way through the stairwell towards the exit, the sound worlds of two radio stations (Ö1 and Radio Wien) come at you, namely exactly on the threshold between the 2nd and 1st floor. One sound wave lets David Bowie sing regarding “Heroes”, the other touches you with ballet music by Maurice Ravel. Our hearing is able to perceive both pieces of music in fractions of a second, to locate and decide whether it is euphonious or a so-called cacophony. The sense of hearing makes it possible for us to differentiate up to 400,000 tones. Composers and musicians ensure that sounds become a melody. Sound engineers, radio producers or even professional speakers are responsible for ensuring that acoustic content is created and communicated – be it via radio, via podcasts, at events or in the form of radio plays and books.
But there are also other professional fields in which hearing plays a major role, for example hearing acoustics. With modern hearing systems, hearing care professionals can compensate for existing hearing loss, because hearing is the most sensitive of all five senses. It is therefore not a matter of course that our ears function perfectly: In Austria, an estimated 450,000 people are affected by a hearing impairment. These people often use Austrian Sign Language, for which there are dedicated interpreters. Blind people, on the other hand, have a particularly strong sense of hearing, they perceive what sighted people do not notice.
Hearing is also a social skill, and listening needs to be learned, and learning through listening is not just for expanding language skills, for example. Attentive listening promotes interpersonal relationships, professionally and privately. Pleasant tones can also have a healing effect, and areas such as singing, music or singing bowl therapy deal with this. Whether hearing technology, art or competence, this week the radio college deals with the facets of our sense of hearing.
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