Phénoménologie de l'attention

A man sat at a metro station  in Washington DC and  started to play the violin; it was a cold January  morning.

He played six Bach pieces for about 45 minutes.  During that time, since it was rush hour, it was calculated that thousands of people went through the station, most of them on their way to  work.

Three  minutes went by and a middle aged man noticed there was  a musician playing. He slowed his pace and stopped for a few seconds and then hurried up to meet his  schedule.

 A  minute later, the violinist received his first dollar  tip: a woman threw the money in the till and without stopping continued to  walk.

 A  few minutes later, someone leaned against the wall to  listen to him, but the man looked at his watch and  started to walk again. Clearly he was late for  work.

The one who paid the most attention was a 3 year old boy.  His mother dragged him along, hurried, but the kid stopped  to look at the violinist. Finally the mother pushed hard  and the child continued to walk turning his head all the  time. This action was repeated by several other children. All the parents, without exception, forced them to move on.

In  the 45 minutes the musician played, only 6 people stopped and stayed for a while. About 20 gave him money  but continued to walk their normal pace. He collected  $32. When he finished playing and silence took over, no  one noticed it. No one applauded, nor was there any recognition.

 No  one knew this but the violinist was Joshua Bell, one of  the best musicians in the world. He played one of the  most intricate pieces ever written with a violin worth  3.5 million dollars.

Two  days before his playing in the subway, Joshua Bell sold out at a theater in Boston and the seats averaged $100.00 each.

This  is a real story. Joshua Bell playing incognito in the  metro station was organized by the Washington Post as  part of a social experiment about perception, taste and  priorities of people. The outlines were: in a  commonplace environment at an inappropriate hour: Do we perceive beauty? Do we stop to appreciate it? Do we  recognize the talent in an unexpected  context?  One  of the possible conclusions from this experience could  be:

If we do not have a moment to stop and listen to one of the best musicians in the world playing some of the best  music ever written, how many other things are we  missing?