In Pursuit Of Silence

Last night we had the pleasure of watching the premiere of In Pursuit Of Silence, a documentary film written and directed by Patrick Shen who came over from LA for the screening with his family. Beautiful and thought provoking, the film explores our relationship with sound, how the world is getting increasingly louder and the detrimental effect it can have on our physical and mental health. A wide range of experts are featured including our own Dr Miele, who discuss their views, research and predictions on silence and sound. The film also follows people who are consciously living a quieter life, including a fascinating man who had taken a vow of silence for a year while walking across America.

Visually stunning with a beautiful score, periods of silence are cleverly interweaved with the pleasing sights and sounds of nature and juxtaposed with every day noises and the overwhelming cacophony from some of the loudest places in the world. After the screening, you are acutely aware of sound around you. Patrick, the director gave us an insight into how his life has changed since making the film including the notion of making silence fun for children. On the daily walk to school, Patrick and his son play a game of finding a new sound every day, an idea we love!

One of the discussions after the film was around ‘what silence means’ and how it is likely that if everyone was asked this question in the cinema, there would be a wide range of answers as sound is relative and subjective. Noise on the other hand seems easier to express, in that it is something that you don’t want to hear and that takes your focus away from your thoughts, creativity and conversations. This is something that Miele feels passionately about, and in turn a great deal of time is spent researching the sound and quality of sound that our appliances make in the home to help reduce unwanted noise. We are proud to be a Quiet Mark partner and to be featured within the film as a brand committed to excellent acoustic design. The crew came to our headquarters in Gütersloh to see how our appliances are made and meet with our design and technical engineers, as well as interviewing Executive Director and Co-Proprietor, Dr Miele which can be seen here:

We believe it is vital to support Quiet Mark’s vision of creating a quieter, healthier, environment for the next generation. From product labelling online and in-store, to rigorous acoustic design and engineering. Our appliances are tested by Quiet Mark’s acoustic experts who have awarded us their distinctive purple Quiet Mark symbol in recognition of the many products we have that are among the quietest in their categories. We are devoted to continuing to invest in the acoustic design and sound quality of our appliances for the long term.

View our products that have been awarded the Quiet Mark here