New "Ears-on" Exhibition at Reuben H. Fleet Science Center Explores the Science of Sound,
Nuance in Noise and Lost Art of Listening

With More than 30 New Exhibits, "Listen Here! Making Sense of Sound" Invites Visitors to Strike a Chord, Raise a Ruckus and Dive into the Sonic Soup. "Listen Here!" is organized into five subject areas, including: Listening for Pleasure and Patterns, Soundscapes, Listening to Understand Each Other, Listening Depends on Who We Are, and Listening Skills.

Exhibits comprising the Listening for Pleasure and Patterns section encourage visitors to listen with a musician’s ears and recognize patterns that provide the structural framework for musical composition. Exhibits such as "Mysterious Melodies," "Find the Groove" and "Keeping the Beat" demonstrate the parallels between musical elements such as pitch, harmony, timbre and rhythm, and physical concepts such as frequency and resonance.

Rainforests, factories, city streets and even the Fleet Science Center are examples of Soundscapes. From a human heartbeat to the sonic realm of an automobile, visitors explore a range of soundscapes at varying scales. At "Shape the Soundscape," guests listen to the "sonic soup" of the Science Center through a microphone and manipulate the sound by using a 31-band graphic equalizer. "Sound Puzzles" challenges visitors to listen to everyday sounds that have been cut up and rearranged, then attempt to put the sounds back in their correct order.

The concept of listening is most closely associated with human speech and communication, which is why several exhibits are devoted to the topic Listening to Understand Each Other. At "Eavesdropping," guests listen to three simultaneous conversations — in a restaurant, at a hair salon and in a classroom — and consider which ones hold their attention and why. "Auditory Illusions" is a multimedia exhibit that explores several auditory tricks related to speech comprehension. Among them is "Ladle Rat Rotten Hut," a version of "Little Red Riding Hood," which demonstrates just how important context is to the meaning of language. The "McGurk Effect" demonstrates dissonance between a spoken utterance and a perfectly-aligned video of someone speaking a different sound, resulting in a bizarre effect.

What are the subjective, emotional, and cultural aspects of listening? Exhibits within the Listening Depends on Who We Are section ask visitors to observe their own associations with sound – including comfort, threat, and fear – and gain an appreciation of sound’s role in creating an emotional experience or mood. At "Sound Memories," guests explore sound memories and their links to emotions. In the "Listening Guide Theater," stories are presented from real people – ranging from car mechanics to therapists – who rely on listening in their daily lives.

By taking a sonic journey through a subway station with a person who is blind, visitors gain an appreciation of the skills needed to navigate by ear. Exhibits in the Listening Skills section demonstrate how we use our "two ears and one brain" to localize sound. At "Ear Tricks" guests experience how their world would sound different if their left and right ears were reversed. At "Out-Quiet Yourself," visitors are challenged to make as little noise as possible while walking on a particularly noisy material.Located in the Fleet’s main exhibit gallery, "Listen Here!" also features:

• "Focused Conversation," where two people sit on opposite sides of a six-foot diameter balloon filled with carbon dioxide gas. When they speak, they can hear each other very clearly. The sound is focused by the denser carbon dioxide gas in the same way that light is focused by lenses.
• "No Peek Pong," an eyes-closed version of the classic video game Pong. Players use their ears to track the location and direction of a moving target.
• "Theramin" The Theremin was one of the first electronic musical instruments. By placing their hands near two antennas, visitors can vary the volume and frequency of the Theremin’s tone.
• And many others!

Produced by the world-famous Exploratorium in San Francisco, "Listen Here! Making Sense of Sound" is completely bilingual, with exhibit instructions and scientific explanations presented in both English and Spanish. The exhibition will remain on display at the Fleet Science Center through June 1, 2008.