A Violinist In The Metro, Or The Proof That We Look Without Seeing

The violinist in the metro is the name of a social experiment that was carried out to prove that we look without seeing. It materialized for the first time in 2007, then it was renewed seven years later. Its protagonist, the famous violinist Joshua Bell, has proven that the human being is good at ignoring beauty.

The experiment was organized by the Washington Post. It was based on a question: will beauty capture people’s attention if presented in an everyday context and at an inappropriate time? In other words: to what extent are people able to recognize beauty outside of the scenarios in which we expect it to be placed?

The end result showed that we look without seeing and we hear without listening. This is probably due to the fact that we get too carried away by appearances. In addition, we are so absorbed in our daily life that we are not able to discover the diamonds that sparkle in the scope.

Joshua Bell, a virtuoso

Joshua Bell is one of the best violinists in the world. He was born in 1967 and raised in Indiana (United States). Very young, his parents saw him reproduce the sound of his mother’s piano with rubber bands. He was only 4 years old. His father bought him a violin and at the age of 7 the boy was already giving his first concert.

What characterizes Joshua Bell the most is his love for classical music and his defense of an idea: it should be accessible to all audiences. He is not one of those masters who thinks that it is only valid in certain environments or for an informed public.

Bell has performed on Sesame Street and has been involved in the creation of several soundtracks for commercial films. In addition, he played the central theme of the film The Red Violin and served as an understudy for the main character in several scenes. This is why the Washington Post thought Joshua Bell was the best character for his social experience.

The experience

The violinist’s experience in the subway consisted of having Joshua Bell play at a very popular Washington subway station, at a busy hour. Bell wanted to play with his Stradivarius violin, worth over three million dollars.

The designers of the experiment estimated that between 75 and 100 people would stop to listen to it. But also that Bell would get at least $100, during the hour of his performance. After all, three days before he had given a concert where the audience had paid $100 a seat to listen to it in poorly placed chairs.

The designated day was January 12, 2007 at 7:51 a.m. Bell was dressed in a long-sleeved t-shirt, jeans and a cap. He began by performing a work by Johann Sebastian Bach, then he continued with his masterful interpretation of Shubert’s Ave Maria. He then performed a series of other plays. It was then that the obvious became clear: we look without seeing and we hear without listening.

We look without seeing and listen without hearing

In total, the prodigy violinist played for 47 minutes. During this time, 1,097 people passed by him. To everyone’s surprise, only six of them stopped to listen. In total, he got 32 dollars and 17 cents for his performance. Joshua Bell later said that the most frustrating thing was finishing his performances and seeing that no one was cheering.

Only one woman recognized him and a man stopped to listen to him for six minutes. It was a 30 year old boy named John David Mortensen. An official from the State Department of Energy. He later said the only classics he knew were rock classics. However, Bell’s music sounded sublime to him and he stopped to listen to it. “ I felt peace, ” he later declared.

The proof that we watch without seeing and hear without listening is that most passers-by were completely indifferent to the spectacle. It was also disheartening for Bell to feel so ignored. So, seven years later, he performed again in the same place, but preceded by great publicity.

This time around, hundreds of people gathered around him. The objective was to bring young people closer to classical music and Bell gave a small didactic concert . He regretted that so many people around the world were unable to identify beauty and wanted to give more of himself to overcome this deficiency.

Our thoughts

This psychologist created, among other things, field theory, focusing his attention on the interactions of groups with the environment.