i. what silence might carry

Click here for an idealized soundtrack for the essay, “On Silence.”

“Idealized” because it will never exist quite like this. Once implemented, each of these sounds will play only when a reader opens the footnotes and sidebars within the essay, and they would play only for as long as you stayed on the page. In this idealized soundtrack, each of the essay’s nine pages receives 45 seconds of air time (with a few exceptions). The sounds still need a bit of work, though, so in terms of quality, this soundtrack is not at all ideal. The list below gives the order of the sounds on this soundtrack, and shows where each sound will eventually be integrated into the piece as a whole:

Opening screen, upon rolling over “On Silence” (this sound will play throughout the essay): Vinyl silence (15 seconds)
Page 1, On “peripheral”: water dripping (0:15-1:00)
Page 2

On “life” (footnote 1): Film projector (1:10-1:45)
On “obscure”: Immaculate reception, with lots of noise (1:20-1:45)

Page 3, 45 seconds of silence, with vinyl noise (which runs throughout)
Page 4: A little longer than the rest, to accommodate for all the sounds. The six noises involved on this page will play out, one by one, as the six links on the page get opened. One of these links (Spirit) is contained within another link (Ghost). The sounds, in order, are:

On “Actual self destruction, with gun”: Nine Inch Nails sample from Ghosts (2:30-3:30)
On “Telltale Heart, at any distance”: reversed scribbling pencil with garbled noise (2:40-3:30)
On “suicide”: bass-amplified sandpaper scratching (2:50-3:30)
On “ghost”: me reading OED definition of decibel (3:00-3:30)
On “spirit”: dial-up sound (3:10-3:30)
On “wall”: alternating sound wave (built from keyboard accordion sound) (3:20-3:30)

Page 5

On “November” (footnote 2): sharpening knives (3:40-4:15)
On “November” (footnote 3): AM static (3:50-4:15)

Page 6
- On “India” (footnote 3): the noises of a crowded room (4:30-5:00)
- On “insane”: vacuuming (4:45-5:00)
Page 7, This page is also a little longer than the others, as was page 4. Five sounds will play as links are clicked. Footnote six is accessible only through footnote five. The sounds, in order, are:

On “dance,” (Footnote 5): degrading sample of Tom Waits’ “Russian Dance” (5:05-6:00)
On “Flood waters rush in” (Footnote 6): dog barking (5:15-6:00)
On “We pray for rain” (Footnote 7): amusement park (5:25-6:00)
On “nostalgia”: phone ring (5:35-6:00)

Page 8:

On “the word ” (Footnote 8): Underwood typewriter (6:05-6:45)
On “etymologies”: chimes (6:15-6:45)
On “language” (Footnote 9): city traffic (6:25-6:45)
On “might be one” (Footnote 10) a cacophony (built from FM static) (6:35-6:45)

Page 9, silent in the beginning, but then over the course of the next minute and ten seconds or so the vinyl hiss sound that has been constant in the background gets increasingly noisy until it is overwhelming.