listening

thumb|Listening in conversation.

Listening is the act of paying attention to sounds. While often described as attention to sound, listening is increasingly understood as an interpretive process shaped by context and prior experience. It includes listening to the sounds of nature, listening to music, and perhaps most importantly, interpersonal listening, i.e. listening to other human beings. When listening to another person, one hears what they are saying and tries to understand what it means. Despite its broad applications, discussions of listening in interdisciplinary fields such as sound studies and art remain underrepresented.