ON LISTENING #1
Thinking (through) the ear
Curated by Arnau Horta. Music by Annie Goh
To what extent is listening ‘thinkable’? Philosophical inquiry, deeply rooted in the visual regime, seems to struggle when it comes to theoretically coming to grips with listening and sonic phenomena. It is, after all, no coincidence that the Greek term ‘theoria’ (θεωρία) means ‘looking at, viewing, beholding’.
This programme explores philosophy’s seeming difficulty in grappling with listening and its counterpart – sound – as a powerful deconstructive means to cut through some of the philosophical certainties that underpin classical and modern Western thought.
Can we conceive sounds as objects, or it would be more appropriate to consider them events? How far can the phenomenological approach to sound take us, and how much can we rely on it? And what about new materialisms? Are they more useful, in hermeneutic terms, when dealing with sound and listening? These are some of the issues addressed in part one of ON LISTENING.
Alma Söderberg
Alma Söderberg is a choreographer and performer who works with music and dance. As well as exploring close listening, Alma listens to rhythm and movement, in order to inhabit polyrythm and "simultaneous difference", to quote Eric Davis by way of Alma. In this podcast, Alma tells us about the many musical influences that inspire her choreographic practice: jazz, flamenco, hip hop, and experimental and Afro-American music. She also talks about multiplicity, reduced listening and deep listening, about letting rhythm run through you, about the voice, sharing, idiorhythms, Anni Albers, weaving, learning to wait, and about playing.
Jean-Luc Nancy
Jean-Luc Nancy talks about the body as an echo chamber and as a sensible and sentient presence, about silence as the “infinite extremity of sound”, and the role of sound and listening in the context of political practice.
Deleted scenes
We dig up some unreleased fragments of the interview with Jacob Kirkegaard that we were unable to include the first time around.
Research process: Jacob Kirkegaard
In 2014, we interviewed Danish artist Jacob Kirkegaard as part of a research project entitled ON LISTENING. This podcast takes us back to that conversation, where Kirkegaard reflected on the importance of listening and argues that sound art can create purely sensory spaces that go beyond our immediate perception, helping us to grasp the unfathomable.
Alvin Lucier
In loving memory of Alvin Lucier (1931-2021), we dig up a conversation with Alvin, one of the most amazing composers and sound artists we've seen, in which he talks about the need to listen carefully, the composers that have accompanied and influenced him over the years, and the role of space and technology in his work, among many other things. One of a kind.
Playing phenomena as a compositional material
This mix explores how the use of aural phenomena can manifest in its many forms to become the key element in a compositional practice. By engaging in the use of such expanded sonic techniques the composer can act to create a recalibration of the listeners sense of hearing and by so doing, allow for a reconsideration of what constitutes sonic composition.