deep listening, open ears and decolonial thought

listening as practice: some key artists include –

Pauline Oliveros: founder of the deep listening institution. for Oliveros deep listening was a way to extend the ways the ears function, believing that you listening not just with your ears but with your entire body.

R. Murray Shafer: for him listening was political. in his essay ‘open ears’ he asks 3 questions – who is listening, what are they listening to, what are they ignoring or refusing to listen to? this extends to how the state also listens and taps in through surveillance.

devices: consider what devices are used for listening – a microphone, a contact microphone can listen to an object and this can amplify the dimensions of that objects sound. this might allow you to change your relationship with an object or hear something you usually ignore. devices are not just to produce sound but to perceive sound.

the material frame: so far we have considered what produces sound, now we consider what produces listening. not just the ears but the whole body and also listening using technology and devices.

philosophical dimension to listening: Roland Barthes wrote an essay called ‘Listening’ where he states that in order for speech to transform radically we must also transform listening. in thinking about the philosophical and political dimension of listening he contends that there are 3 components to listening- the disciple, the patient and the believer- who all listen to those with authority and those with knowledge – as a habit and acceptingly. Barthes believes we have to transform our relationship with listening and accepting those with authority.

decolonial thought: this includes a wide range of thinkers, activists and artists. they include Aníbal Quijano, Silvia Rodriquez Cusicanqui, Walter Mignolo, María Lugones. Their focus is on decolonial listening, believing that colonial listening lasts long after people have been decolonised. For example centuries after the Spanish left Mexico, they continue to speak in Spanish – similarly in Ireland! Decolonial thinkers focus on how colonisation persists and what we can do about it – first understand it and then transform it and liberate ourselves from it. Language, legal structures, race relations all continue to grapple with the legacy of colonisation. our bodies inherit this colonialisation – through visuals, through sound, through the senses and experience. how can we use sound and listening to resist the continuation of colonisation?

Dylan Robinson: an indigenous Canadian scholar, Dylan has reverted to the indigenous name for the colonial newcomers which translates as ‘the hungry ones’ as they were always looking for resources – food, gold etc. Dylan’s question asks is there a way to listen without these prejudges and listen simply as an experience and without the baggage of colonisation.

Rebecca Belmore: a Canadian artists, who’s work ‘speaking to our mothers’ used a megaphone which she built and carried to different communities, asking them what issues need to be amplified that are not being heard and who needs to hear these messages. the megaphone ended its journey on the steps of the Canadian parliament bringing the unheard voices of the communities to those in authority, requiring them to listen to those who were losing land rights etc.