Silence is an abstract concept that can be difficult to understand and even harder to explain. What is it exactly? How do we value it? Why is it important? These are just a few of the questions that form the basis of my research.

At its most basic level, silence can be defined as the absence of noise, sound, or voices. It can be a condition that exists in a physical environment or a characteristic of a particular situation. It can also refer to the failure to speak or express oneself. But as we delve deeper into the subject, we realize that there is much more to silence than meets the eye.

When viewed from a psychological or anthropological perspective, the complexity of silence becomes even more apparent. For example, the silence found in religion can have different functions and purposes. Unlike words, which imply human presence, silence can evoke or at least not disturb the non-human. This is particularly important in the context of magic, religious, or holy rites, where silence is often required to avoid disturbing the energy or actions of metaphysical entities. Similarly, when enjoying nature, people often remain quiet to listen, whether to the birds, the wind, or something more. For some, this can be a sacred connection with a non-human reality and silence is the necessary tool for this connection.

Silence can also be used as a tool in social rituals. In Taoist practice, "non-action" (wu-wei) is a form of silence that is used to achieve universal harmony. In the Roman Catholic religion, the Latin phrase Favete linguis! imposes silence during rituals to avoid desecration of the sacred action. And in Buddhism, silence precedes and accompanies the entrance into Paramārtha (Nirvana).

As we have seen, the study of silence through its social functions or from a psychological point of view can be challenging, but it yields a greater understanding of its value. Rather than seeing it as a mere physical absence of sound, it should be understood as a natural and psychological phenomenon that occurs within our minds and shapes our perceptions of the world. From this perspective, silence can be seen as a necessary mindset for introspectively analyzing our past, present, and future life experiences.

Development of "Silentivm": three key steps

The first step was the careful selection of participants. This was a challenging task, particularly due to the sensitive nature of the photography, which required the upper body to be unclothed, and the content of the interview/questionnaire, which could elicit personal stories. In the end, five individuals were selected - three males and two females.

In the second phase, participants underwent a face-to-face interview to record their Word-Association Test regarding the word "silence." It's worth noting that the participants were not aware of the topic of the study until the end of the test, to minimize any potential biases in their responses.

In the third phase, participants were asked to complete an online questionnaire with open-ended questions. The aim was to gather qualitative and meaningful answers from the subjects. These answers were then used as stimuli for the final phase of the project, which involved photography. The information collected from the questionnaire enabled me to add significant details to each photograph, visually representing the participants' expressed thoughts and feelings about silence. An online questionnaire was chosen as a research tool to minimize the potential for bias caused by the interviewer's influence.

Five Values of the Silence

The results of this project are based on the interviews of five individuals who participated in the study. The findings are a compilation of their beliefs, opinions, and written sentences. The title of each text (and photograph) is derived from their answer collected during the Word Association Test.4.

I Mouth

Woman, Finland |  Silence is mouth

As Finnish, I think that this concept is very close to our culture because we are always under the ice [Symbolically speaking, she means that finland has a very long winter. Editor’s note] . It’s as if the ice controls us for half of the year. It makes us silent.
We always fear the winter because everybody gets depressed. We don't meet and talk face to face with anybody. Our homes are where we like to be. During the winter, Finland is grey if you are Finnish.

For me, the perfect silence is like building a mental altar where I put elements of my life, my past, drawings, sculptures, the stones. The silence is between the inhale and exhale. I enjoy that state of mind when I play billiards. I feel the pure silence inside my mind at the moment between the strike of the white ball and the moment in which it hits the other colored balls. It doesn't matter the noise or music around me. I feel the silence.

II Space

Man, Lithuania | Silence is space

For me the silence is just being alone with our thoughts and it is a mental status but also physical even if, i think, the mental one is more useful for us. [he means for our well-being, editor’s note].

When someone is going to be alone physically,  the mind could be still full of thoughts about work, different people’s problems and so on. If you are alone, you will ‌decide properly what you want about something. It is possible because you are relaxed, in company with yourself and your thoughts. For me, this is one way to experience silence.

I like the silence. When I want to be alone, I rarely listen to music. I like to be in company only with myself and my thoughts that are very important to me.  Silence structures my thoughts.

In addition, the relationship between silence and photography is very meaningful for me [the interviewee is a photography student, editor’s note]. When you see a photograph you hear nothing, you just see, however the image is speaking to you.  In that moment, you ‌associate things with others things that arouse your emotions.

Also, when I take a photograph, I start to isolate everything in order to focus on taking the image.

III Forest

Man, Finland | Silence is forest

I highly value silence, silence means freedom to me. 

I usually experience it during my walks in the forest. At that moment, all the stress from life disappears and I feel finally at peace.

IV Peace

Man, Poland | Silence is Peace

Silence is a way to find inner peace. Moreover, it lets me rest from stress. My flat or my bed. 

Usually when I am experiencing the silence, I really don't care about what is happening outside. Inside, I am alone with my thoughts and my needs.

V Pain

Woman, Poland | Silence is pain

Silence is something very powerful for me... something that we need in life. But it can appear in many various forms - it can make us feel good and bad. We usually connect silence with calmness and then it is its most beautiful side, which can create the feeling of peace in our minds... not always, though.
For me, too much silence can easily become an enemy in many situations. Sometimes it's just that simple that it lets your unwanted thoughts spread around your head and you simply can't turn them off, while more noise would just silence them.
Then there comes the wrong ‌silence... either if you lose someone you love or someone close uses it as a kind of weapon towards you, which literally can be the worst kind of psychical torture.

Before having more experience with silence, it was rather something good for me. Just some years ago first thought about silence would be connected to the peaceful view of the calm sea at the hour of sunrise when in my eyesight there is no one else, but some birds flying over water and what you hear is just their silent screams and some little waves crashing onto the shore... peace, loneliness, beautiful morning light and the feeling of being disconnected from all the rest of the world (that creates both positive and also negative feelings).
Within the last few years, my view of it has changed entirely when I experienced its other side. The silence, that becomes the worst kind of psychical torture, which lasts for hours, days or weeks: when you need an answer but you don't get it, when you are not alone, but feel ‌ you're the loneliest in the world, when there is another person next to you, someone that you love, and there is just darkness and silence between that creates the biggest distance even though you're just next to each other. When you need to hear something from them, but there is nothing and you only see their empty, cold eyes staring into space, like you are not even there, like you don't matter at all... and the only real thing around you is silence. Which lasts forever. When it finally ends, you don't even know what was wrong, you're just too glad that the silence has finally ended. It feels like it's slowly killing you inside, tearing you apart. You just can't stand the silence anymore… Everything inside you is screaming while outside there is nothing more but the dark, heavy silence, which is growing and growing... Some hours last like forever and there is no way out, but just inside of yourself.

References

1. Wu wei - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wu_wei. (Accessed: 8th May 2016)

2. Favete linguis! - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Favete_linguis! (Accessed: 8th May 2016)

3. Paramārtha - Theosophy Wiki. Available at: http://www.theosophy.wiki/en/Param%C4%81rtha. (Accessed: 8th May 2016)

4. Word Association - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Word_Association#Psychology. (Accessed: 8th May 2016)