# Experiencing the production of sounds **Opening (not a real abstract):** In a recent book Jonathan Rée tells of how as a child he used to wonder which would be worse: to lose one’s sight or one’s hearing? Much worse, he concluded, to lose one’s sight, since Sounds seemed to me to be nature’s waifs and strays: they did not fit into the familiar world of physical things, and they could not be tracked down by my other senses either . . . They were not part of the material world, and they had no weight to them, no substance. Is it surprising that I thought I could happily do without them? (Rée 1999: 19). Whether or not we would be happy to do without sounds, the idea that our experience of sounds is of things which are distinct from the world of material objects can seem compelling. All you have to do to confirm it is close your eyes and reflect on the character of your auditory experience.