For the fifth instalment of the "sic! sound in context” series, we invite Brandon LaBelle and his reflection: Listening, Relation, Community

Listening, relation, community

Experiences of listening may be understood to weaken us, making us vulnerable to the intensities of worldly contact and each other. As such, listening may act as the basis for gestures of compassion and care, enabling forms of mutuality and empathy. Yet, listening may also lead to fragmentation, rupture, ecstasy. What can be drawn from such intensities listening evokes? And what forms of practice might be found by way of listening's relational capacities Exploring questions of listening and relationality, I'll reflect upon methods of social engagement, emphasizing the second cultures that emerge by way of sonic materiality and expression. From such perspectives, a notion of more-than-social art will be posed that may allow for other understandings and imaginaries of community life and what it means to find partnership.

brandonlabelle.net/

Prof. Brandon LaBelle is an artist, writer and theorist living in Berlin. His work focuses on questions of agency, community, pirate culture, and poetics, which results in a range of collaborative and extra-institutional initiatives, including: The Listening Biennial and Academy (2021-), Communities in Movement (2019-), The Living School (with South London Gallery, 2014-16), Oficina de Autonomia (2017), The Imaginary Republic (2014-19), Dirty Ear Forum (2013-), Surface Tension (2003-2008), and Beyond Music Sound Festival (1998-2002). In 1995 he founded Errant Bodies Press, an independent publishing project supporting work in sound art and studies, performance and poetics, artistic research and contemporary political thought. His publications include: The Other Citizen (2020), Sonic Agency (2018), Lexicon of the Mouth (2014), Acoustic Territories (2010, 2019), and Background Noise (2006, 2015). His latest book, Acoustic Justice (2021), argues for an acoustic model by which to engage questions of social equality. LaBelle is also a member of Errant Sound, Berlin.


sic!
sound in context

Lecture series with international guests on sound art, electronic composition and sound-related media art with talks, presentations and lecture performances.

A cooperation of
Sound Studies and Sonic Arts  (MA) | UdK Berlin
UdK Berlin UNI.K  | Studio for electroacoustic composition, sound art and sound research
UdK Berlin IZM  | Institute for Time-Based Media / Generative Art  | Society For Nontrivial Pursuits
TU Studio  | Department of Audio Communication | Technical University Berlin