A fraction of people in the world hear what is called the “Worldwide Hum” or, simply, the “Hum.” The Hum was first documented in the late 1960s, around Bristol, England. It appeared in the United States in the late 1980s in Taos, New Mexico. The World Hum Map and Database Project gathers and documents information from people who can hear the Hum.
Taking the "Hum" as metaphor, Marc Nair pairs photographs from Kandy in Sri Lanka with a poetic exposition of what the hum could represent for our collective lives.
The Hum of the World for Ajit and Mr Jack Kandy, Sri Lanka
It is said there is a hum in the world that only a few have heard
It comes as a low persistence, hangs at the brink of perception
It rises not from mating fish, satellites or a singing child
You can't pay someone to switch it on or drive to a remote gash
in the ground to watch sonic waves swirl the surface
It is the frequency of uncommon thought, an open smile
It is untranslated poetry, a good story if you listen without interrupting
It starts when you're halving cigarettes in a rented room,
when you're stretching one banana into three meals
It comes in the missed train, a beggar's twisted feet
It rises from blooming flowers, against the stripes of a rainbow
It is gunshot and galloping horse, in subways and high above hills
It walks through forest and boutique, rattles plastic and antique
It stops only when it chooses to stop
The hum reminds us that the universe runs on a current
