World Listening Day 2020, The Collective Field

You are invited to participate in World Listening Day 2020 an annual global event held every July 18.

This year’s theme, created by Wild Sanctuary Vice President Katherine Krause is “The Collective Field.”

The Collective Field

There is something new afoot. The field itself is changing.
The creature world knows.  The creative one does too. 
So what does it mean now to listen? How do we express what we know?
Be alert.
Individually and in concert,
There is sanctity in it.
Amid new conditions, travel the field and explore
By call and response
The rhythm within. 
How does your song fit
Within the collective chorus?

Current times have asked each of us, individually and in concert, to retreat, reflect, and rethink the world we thought we knew, but how do we respond?  Energizing this shared global experience holds gifts of rejuvenation. Respect this momentary silence — but glean what it yields. The Collective Field invites you to express your recent journey through what was, what is, and what will be, evoked only by wandering into new territory.  Stay silent until you know. Then speak. Share.  Perform. How have you been transformed? We are all in the woods of a new age, and we’re listening to the future.

Since its inception in 2010, thousands of people from six continents have participated in World Listening Day. July 18th is the birth date of renowned Canadian composer, music educator, and author, R. Murray Schafer. His World Soundscape Project developed the fundamental ideas and practices of acoustic ecology in the 1970s. These inform the current, burgeoning interest in our changing acoustic environment. Thus, World Listening Day honors Schafer’s contribution to understanding our world.