Embodied listening can be framed through the discourse of phenomenology and places the body at the centre of lived experience. This phenomenological approach to listening is pioneered by Dr. Martine Huvenne and starts from an intersubjective space, as Huvenne states in ‘The Audiovisual Chord’ (2022, Pg 31); “Sound is not an objective matter: it is connected to a lived and embodied perception preceded by a feeling. Object and subject are irrevocably correlated, since it is only in listening that sound arises.”
Embodied listening highlights how the body is the medium that allows us to enter in relation with the world. Embodied listening is listening and recording as a sensorial haptic experience; using all the senses. As a methodology it places my own body as the first testing ground in my practice. As the project opens up, the work is shared with other bodies, and the final installation is intended to engage with the body of the audience. Embodied listening as a practice is an empathetic dialogue with the world around me and so always lends itself in relation to the world around oneself. Embodied listening is an active listening, is a deep listening, it implies a series of translations and to have awareness of one another. When practised, this listening requires openness and engagement, tolerance and equality.
I have a lot of questions about what embodied listening could deliver, what forms can it take, virtually and physically? What can it offer to discourses on care, body politics, ecology and contemporary art? Starting from a position of embodied listening and a field recording practice, this interdisciplinary creative doctoral research aims to;
- Develop a practice-based approach to experimentally explore embodied listening through sound, performance and installation practices
- From which one project per year will be created
- Deepen a theoretical framework of embodied listening
- Start intercultural research about embodied listening practices
- This would take place as meetings, surveys and moments of discussion or workshops.
- With collaborators at EPAS, Kask Ghent, Zürcher Hochschule der Künste & Kunstuniversität Linz
- Because listening is intersubjective, this is an important way to test the research project and develop discourse on it.
This practice-led research that I am developing originates from a fine art practice that is situated between the interstices of field recording and interdisciplinary art practices and their performative potential.