In Holland, the government has reacted to predictions of a silence shortage by establishing Silent Zones (Stiltegebieden), defined as areas “in which the sound load caused by human activity is not high enough to disturb the natural sounds in the area.”
My quiet is not the lack of sound. I am trying to make a quiet.
The designer who created the icon for STILTEGEBIED also tried to make a quiet. We could look at it and say: ah, let’s be quiet. The bottom line starts out wavy, making three humps before it settles into a straight and serene contour. It probably represents the sea or a river, but I believe it’s the landscape calming down. The first cloud is attached to the mountain, or oblique projection of a field, after all this is Holland and it is not mountainous. You might say the cloud is grounded. Cloud number two frees itself from the ground, and the effot has caused it to shrink somewhat, by about eighty per cent. But as for cloud three, it is not only free, it is back to the standard dimensions of cloud. An entire journey, from being agitated and limited to hovering in a contemplative state.
Connected, but free.