Nicoletta Polla-Mattiot, thus the secret sound of life is hidden in silence

In the score of life – explains the author – the pauses have disappeared. The experience of the pandemic – with the streets of metropolises emptied of apparent signs of life – has strengthened the idea of ​​silence as an anomaly. For us Italians, explains research reported in the book, silence is a particularly destabilizing experience, we are the ones in Europe who experience silence with the greatest discomfort. A few seconds are enough and we become paranoid about this apparent anomaly in human relationships. Not too dissimilar to the guinea pigs of an experiment – described by Nicoletta Polla-Mattiot – who, forced to sit alone, in an absolutely empty room, with no other company than their own thoughts, preferred to use the only button at their disposal, to inflict a brief electric shock on themselves so as not to be left in that silent absence of stimuli.

Teaching silence (or at least underlining its value) thus becomes almost an emergency: as we recall in the book, all of us, but the youngest in particular, are subject to ‘sound bombs’, to the pounding of information, to endless input. Yet, it turns out, it is precisely when everything is silent that the brain activates.

Not only that. As confirmed by the academic experience of Nicoletta Polla-Mattiot (who teaches ‘Silence and Communication’ at IULM University), silence can be a mode of information, as well as a form of artistic expression: it is a ‘nothingness’ that fills scores – like John Cage’s 4’33” – but also stages, paintings, installations. It may seem absurd, but silence is needed to really listen to the sounds of the world – the beating of your own heart, the groan of a melting glacier.

In a society where it is almost impossible to have an experience, even a dinner in a refined restaurant, without noise (even background music) silence can however become glamour: the promoters of silent parties, the hotel chains that offer ‘relais du silence’ complete with ‘sleeping sommeliers’, have intuited this. The absence of background noise, the offer of experiences built on calm and solitude are – it is explained in the book (which will be presented in Rome on Wednesday 18th at the Spazio Sette bookshop) – the new paradigm of luxury, the measure of exclusivity.

But the ‘revolution’ indicated in the title of this short and intense essay is another. It’s an invitation to connect the dots – which are the different conclusions reached by medical research, psychological investigation, artistic expressions – to arrive at an ecology of silence, which highlights its richness and sustainability.

Nicoletta Polla-Mattiot searched the world and found the most essential part of it where others see nothing, hear nothing. The richness that he discovered in his silences – exposed here with (this is) ‘very full’ and stimulating writing – alone is enough to convince even those who live every day in fear of being left out of life, of missing out on what matters. It’s another emptiness that should be scary. Certainly not that of sounds.