Communication as Radical Tool in Times of Societal Shift
Els Cornelis
In this essay Els Cornelis wanders through thoughts and possibilities, trying to capture the essence of truly listening. Listening as letting go of false assumptions, and as relating, sharing and caring. Listening as an instrument of revolution in times of change. An instrument of empowerment, awareness and decolonisation. And as a way of making space and time for a diversity of voices.
Keywords:
Communication, Societal Shift, Listening
Listening methods
This essay introduces a number of different
Listening methods
. In the left column, you will find these methods. We have also collected all these This essay introduces a number of different listening methods. In the left column, you will find these methods. We have also collected all these listening methods on one page so you can easily use them in an assignment or in class.
Follow this link to see all the methods collected.
Listening methods
on one page so you can easily use them in an assignment or in class.This essay introduces a number of different listening methods. In the left column, you will find these methods. We have also collected all these listening methods on one page so you can easily use them in an assignment or in class.
Follow this link to see all the methods collected.
Follow this link to see all the methods collected.
CONTEMPLATIVE LISTENING
We have collected all these
Listening methods
so you can easily review them or use them in class. Follow this link to the This essay introduces a number of different listening methods. In the left column, you will find these methods. We have also collected all these listening methods on one page so you can easily use them in an assignment or in class.
Follow this link to see all the methods collected.
Listening methods
overview page.This essay introduces a number of different listening methods. In the left column, you will find these methods. We have also collected all these listening methods on one page so you can easily use them in an assignment or in class.
Follow this link to see all the methods collected.
in the Contemplative Dialogue
In regular conversations, an obvious or more subtle pecking order is at work. Who is getting the most speaking time? Who dares to interrupt and when? What is being said, with what tone, with what effect, and in reaction to whom and what? Listening to each other often means already trying to formulate your reaction and to watch vigilantly for the ‘right’ moment to jump into the discussion. So much energy wasted. Energy (and attention) one could also use to listen, carefully, with an open mind and embodied reflection.
A Contemplative Dialogue is a completely different way of communicating. It is based on the insights of Ignatius of Loyola (1491-1556), the founder of the religious order the Jesuits. Convinced that God is present in all things (in prayer, people, events and daily life), Ignatius of Loyola called for being fully present in everything you do. Living and acting with full attention—contemplative in action.
Although a Contemplative Dialogue can vary somewhat in its implementation, the basics, however, are always the same. It consists out of a few rounds, with precise rules. These rules can be experienced as artificial and strange, especially in the beginning of this way of conversing. At the same time, however, the strict rules provide tranquillity. Tranquillity needed to contemplate, to reflect and to meditate on what is being said and shared. The main question to return to is ‘What does this evoke in you?’ This is a question that can be filled in in various ways: it can trigger thoughts, associations, feelings, experiences, questions… There is no right or wrong, and every answer contributes equally to the shared dialogue.
Most often, I personally use the Contemplative Dialogue within an art educational context to approach texts, including theoretical ones, but it can be used as a method of peer-review or a way of working towards a shared vision for change as well. Experimenting with different forms (such as number of rounds, sizes of groups, content of texts) and different contexts, I found that each variation brings interesting, inspiring and diverse information to the fore.
The Contemplative Dialogue is not difficult to initiate. However, as a workshop leader, it is especially important to provide a safe and quiet environment. Put the tables and chairs in a circle to emphasise the equality and the connection within the group. Take care there is enough time to switch moods: from ‘busy, busy, busy’ to taking time to contemplate on what is being read or heard. If participants become feeling uneasy, or start laughing, explain that is precisely what humans tend to feel or do when they do something out of the ordinary. Explicitly ask if there is a willingness to openly explore this alternative way of communicating with each other, and to see how they experience it. There should be no forcing. Just like the Contemplative Dialogue itself, there is no right or wrong when experiencing this way of working.
For more information and specific instructions to the participants, please refer to:
/nl/studies/all/all/contemplative+dialogue+round+by+round/?prv=c489923a76b4a2381766d3ce9ee9395d
On the website of HKU Musework, you can find more information on the form I personally use when discussing a text:
www.musework.nl/nl/contemplatieve-dialoog
I thought of writing an essay,
thorough,
informative,
with a strong line of content
and a reservoir of references to dive into
It has become more a personal exploration, however,
of different thoughts
I wanted to share
Not only some points-of-view that are close to my heart
But also
Who I am, in fact,
What my doubts are
My beliefs
And I am wondering
Isn’t that what ‘good communication’ should be
Giving yourself away
A little
And getting a little back from
Someone else
Retrieving
in relation to the other
a piece of yourself
thorough,
informative,
with a strong line of content
and a reservoir of references to dive into
It has become more a personal exploration, however,
of different thoughts
I wanted to share
Not only some points-of-view that are close to my heart
But also
Who I am, in fact,
What my doubts are
My beliefs
And I am wondering
Isn’t that what ‘good communication’ should be
Giving yourself away
A little
And getting a little back from
Someone else
Retrieving
in relation to the other
a piece of yourself
That we are living in times of crises—be it (the consequences of) Covid-19 or the indisputable symptoms of the climate emergency—has become not only a fixed fact but perhaps already even a cliché . The world seems to be shifting and trembling almost continuously lately, leaving us with shaky ground beneath our feet. Some time ago, persuasive power had to be used to show that huge problems were coming our way. Now, the same people (and I guess, we all belong to that group from time to time) who had be persuaded earlier shrug their shoulders and seem to say, ‘OK, OK, we are living in times of crisis. So what? What can I do about that?’
At this moment, the power of persuasion has thus shifted its focus. We can be more than just victims of crises. We can also be the instigators or initiators of shifts, of revolutions, which hopefully turn the tide for the better.
That is, in any case, what I believe.
But how to communicate what I believe? How to find common grounds and bring about a much-needed change? And how to do this together? In work, in school, in life? And perhaps more importantly, how to connect and truly listen to each other in times of strong views and opinions that often oppose each other?
These are questions that I sometimes find hard to answer.
It is already difficult enough to communicate with like-minded people or those whom you like or even love. But it is an entirely different order of magnitude to communicate with people who think very differently when there is a lot at stake. Things have to be done, organised or changed while the world is shaking.
*
In a short period of time, the world has changed dramatically. At the time of writing this essay, we could hardly imagine that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine would become a devastating reality.
At this moment, the power of persuasion has thus shifted its focus. We can be more than just victims of crises. We can also be the instigators or initiators of shifts, of revolutions, which hopefully turn the tide for the better.
That is, in any case, what I believe.
But how to communicate what I believe? How to find common grounds and bring about a much-needed change? And how to do this together? In work, in school, in life? And perhaps more importantly, how to connect and truly listen to each other in times of strong views and opinions that often oppose each other?
These are questions that I sometimes find hard to answer.
It is already difficult enough to communicate with like-minded people or those whom you like or even love. But it is an entirely different order of magnitude to communicate with people who think very differently when there is a lot at stake. Things have to be done, organised or changed while the world is shaking.
Many thinkers, art educators and artists are convinced that art is of vital importance in offering spaces of possibilities and exploring solutions to the urgent questions of our time.
And I am wondering, if we were able to change the core of our communication:
How would that influence art and art education?
What layers of imagination would be tapped into?
Could we build a different world?
And I am wondering, if we were able to change the core of our communication:
How would that influence art and art education?
What layers of imagination would be tapped into?
Could we build a different world?
In this essay, I give myself the space to traverse some possible ways of thinking. To play and wonder. To look into best as well as ‘worst’ practices. To explore alternatives within society in general and art education in particular. To share inspiration on how to possibly use communication as a tool to stimulate inclusive, critical thinking, as well as decision-making and acting. And to revise my own points-of-view and opinions. Because, as Stine Jensen and many others have pointed out, I feel that it is not that difficult to form an opinion. It is harder to change one that is already formed.
The root of communication goes back to the Latin word communicare, derived from communis. To share, to make common.
*
Stine Jensen, Faalmoed en Andere Filosofische Overdenkingen (Alkmaar: Pepper Books, 2021).
The root of communication goes back to the Latin word communicare, derived from communis. To share, to make common.
When I think of sharing I see a cake in my mind’s eye. You give your friend a piece and you take a piece yourself. You give a piece away, but the sharing makes the cake so much better tasting.
You cannot share on your own.
And that is precisely what makes communication difficult. It involves the other. Not just yourself.
It also makes thinking, or writing, about communication difficult.
It is not a topic in itself, with clear-cut borders.
And that is precisely what makes communication difficult. It involves the other. Not just yourself.
It also makes thinking, or writing, about communication difficult.
It is not a topic in itself, with clear-cut borders.
Suddenly, I have to think about the tree falling down on a deserted island. As I understand, a more technically oriented answer to the riddle ‘If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?’ suggests there is no sound because the tree falling down produces vibration, but this vibration is not perceived by any ear.
Communication is often narrowed down to expressing yourself the best way you can. There is quite a bit hidden in this seemingly simple expression. It has, for example, to do with what is best for you, for the relationship between you and the other, for the situation, for the goal you may want to achieve in the short or long run. It also has to do with yourself—how you consider yourself, in relation to the other, the situation, life in general… And then, there are all the different ways in which to express oneself.
But in my view, there is a more important objection to this expression. It seems mainly to refer to sending.
But in my view, there is a more important objection to this expression. It seems mainly to refer to sending.
Perhaps one could take this further.
There is no one to hear you shouting on this deserted island, so based on the previous reasoning, there was no sound.
And just as well, there may not even have been a you, since your existence was not perceived. As the eighteenth-century philosopher George Berkeley stated, ‘Esse est percipi’—To be is to be perceived.
There was a sender but no receiver.
The message was sent with no effect.
A vibration with no sound.
There is no one to hear you shouting on this deserted island, so based on the previous reasoning, there was no sound.
And just as well, there may not even have been a you, since your existence was not perceived. As the eighteenth-century philosopher George Berkeley stated, ‘Esse est percipi’—To be is to be perceived.
There was a sender but no receiver.
The message was sent with no effect.
A vibration with no sound.
Communication is about going back and forth.
About giving and receiving.
About sharing.
Expressing yourself the best way you can suits our neoliberal ideology well. After all, one has to take care of oneself—success depends on yourself; failure as well. The art world is considered to be highly competitive, with a lot of supply (read: artists and art educators) and very little demand (read: funds, residencies, collectors, positions). So, you’d better go out there and declare loudly, proudly and assertively who you are and what you want. Loudly, proudly and assertively because you can’t let anyone feel you are in desperate need of something. Be convincing at all times. Present yourself as a winner. Feel yourself as a winner. Because people feel it; they smell it if you aren’t. And they won’t like it/like you.
Sound familiar?
About giving and receiving.
About sharing.
Expressing yourself the best way you can suits our neoliberal ideology well. After all, one has to take care of oneself—success depends on yourself; failure as well. The art world is considered to be highly competitive, with a lot of supply (read: artists and art educators) and very little demand (read: funds, residencies, collectors, positions). So, you’d better go out there and declare loudly, proudly and assertively who you are and what you want. Loudly, proudly and assertively because you can’t let anyone feel you are in desperate need of something. Be convincing at all times. Present yourself as a winner. Feel yourself as a winner. Because people feel it; they smell it if you aren’t. And they won’t like it/like you.
Sound familiar?
For years, I myself thought that being invisible was the same as being safe. If you are not noticed, you can act freely. Lately, though, I've started to think, what if it's the other way around?
If you don't stand out, you could be run over. Accidentally.
If ants were giants, we would be more careful when walking or cycling.
You wouldn't want to bump into a giant ant.
If you don't stand out, you could be run over. Accidentally.
If ants were giants, we would be more careful when walking or cycling.
You wouldn't want to bump into a giant ant.
Since there are a lot of individuals in this world, and, accordingly, a lot of needs, we are living in a world in which everything and everyone seems to be shouting, be it visually, verbally, or behaviourally.
In her last column, Clarice Gargard mentions the overwhelming visibility she encountered being the first black female columnist at Dutch newspaper NRC, where she focused on issues like racism and inclusion. Visibility in the form of numerous hate messages, as well as messages of support and love.
In parting, she expresses the hope that ‘those who recognise themselves in [her] feel less alone. Know that you can enter places that were not made for you and sometimes create your own frames too. Because nothing outside of you defines you, no matter how hard the outside world tries.’
Stating that she has not much more to add to the current debate she experiences as an ‘endless stream of opinions and speakers with a shortage of thinkers, doers and listeners,’ and believing that visibility should act as a vehicle, not a goal, she takes the advice at the heart of Michaela Coel’s I May Destroy You (a TV series about sexual violence and the winner of an Emmy award):
‘Visibility somehow seems to be equated to
success these days; don't be afraid to disappear.
From [the world], from us, for a while.
And see what comes to you in silence.’
*
Clarice Gargard, ‘Als Columnist Kreeg Ik Bakken Vol Haat over me Heen Maar ook Veel Liefde,’ NRC Handelsblad, October 20, 2021, www.nrc.nl/nieuws/2021/10/20/zichtbaarheid-kan-een-valkuil-worden-a4062546.
In parting, she expresses the hope that ‘those who recognise themselves in [her] feel less alone. Know that you can enter places that were not made for you and sometimes create your own frames too. Because nothing outside of you defines you, no matter how hard the outside world tries.’
Stating that she has not much more to add to the current debate she experiences as an ‘endless stream of opinions and speakers with a shortage of thinkers, doers and listeners,’ and believing that visibility should act as a vehicle, not a goal, she takes the advice at the heart of Michaela Coel’s I May Destroy You (a TV series about sexual violence and the winner of an Emmy award):
‘Visibility somehow seems to be equated to
success these days; don't be afraid to disappear.
From [the world], from us, for a while.
And see what comes to you in silence.’
To be is to be heard. But what about all the people who were not listened to? History accumulated lots of them.
What is seen or what is heard is inextricably intertwined with what is represented. What is represented is seen and what is not seen is not represented.
It is a loop one can get stuck in forever.
It is a loop one can get stuck in forever.
‘We’ are not equally visible or audible.
Colonialism strongly directed our senses, our ways of seeing, our ways of hearing. And thus, our ways of thinking, categorising and understanding. And our ways of behaving and relating.
More and more urgent pleas to examine our blind spots are coming up.
Colonialism strongly directed our senses, our ways of seeing, our ways of hearing. And thus, our ways of thinking, categorising and understanding. And our ways of behaving and relating.
More and more urgent pleas to examine our blind spots are coming up.
This loop is closely linked to the modern/colonial order.
Rolando Vázquez puts it as follows: ‘The colonial difference is the border that gets established by this modern/colonial order and which separates what is seen, what is heard, and what is dignified from what is racialized, negated, erased, exploited, and extracted.’
Rolando Vázquez puts it as follows: ‘The colonial difference is the border that gets established by this modern/colonial order and which separates what is seen, what is heard, and what is dignified from what is racialized, negated, erased, exploited, and extracted.’
*
Zöe Dankert, Decolonial Listening. An Interview with Rolando Vázquez,’ Soapbox, Practices of Listening 1.1 (2019): pp. 147-156, p. 149.
uploads-ssl.webflow.com/5e908331c9af5c22a9f06cbd/60a38766585a942fd73f30d4_1.1.%20Practices%20of%20Listening.pdf
What, and who, do we not hear?
What, and who, do we not see?
What, and who, do we not understand?
And why?
What, and who, do we not see?
What, and who, do we not understand?
And why?
ACTIVE LISTENING
We have collected all these
Listening methods
so you can easily review them or use them in class. Follow this link to the This essay introduces a number of different listening methods. In the left column, you will find these methods. We have also collected all these listening methods on one page so you can easily use them in an assignment or in class.
Follow this link to see all the methods collected.
Listening methods
overview page.This essay introduces a number of different listening methods. In the left column, you will find these methods. We have also collected all these listening methods on one page so you can easily use them in an assignment or in class.
Follow this link to see all the methods collected.
in the Socratic Dialogue
The Socratic Dialogue, in which
ACTIVE LISTENING
in the Socratic Dialogue
The Socratic Dialogue, in which active listening is an essential component, is far from new. It was developed in Greece, around 400 B.C.
Socrates believed that true knowledge can be gathered by exploring, researching, thinking through an issue oneself. Tracking down and questioning blind spots and fixed thinking patterns is essential, and the easiest way to undertake this is in a dialogue with someone else, asking questions. Socrates asserted that by asking questions, one could guide someone in obtaining true knowledge. As there are no writings by Socrates himself, the Socratic Dialogue is found in books by his students—in the dialogues of Plato, for instance. In these dialogues, Socrates was often staged to play the role of the questioner.
In recent years, the Socratic Dialogue found more and more resonance in (art) education and training programmes. Within this essay, I would like to refer to one specific example because of the thoroughness with which this method was implemented into the programme and the didactical vision. And because of the nuanced and clear reflection in the publication by Anik Fournier, a teacher on the Bachelor of Fine Arts at ArtEZ (Base for Experiment, Art and Research—BEAR). In order to stay as close as possible to Fournier’s findings and insights, I will mostly quote directly from the publication.
The Socratic Dialogue comes with a strict set of rules. For instance, the participants can only bring in embodied knowledge—knowledge outside of one’s own experience is not allowed. Once one is given the floor—one cannot jump into the conversation—one can be asked to start by summarising the last 15 minutes of the conversation before adding to it. This guarantees that one is urged to listen very carefully to everything that has been said. A conversation is inherently a slow process in which a ‘plurality of perspectives is put forth and they are constantly reiterated.’ All participants are considered to be equal and in this sense; there is a horizontality within the dialogue—there is no hierarchy.
As Fournier notes, the goal is not to come to a clear answer or a consensus. ‘[…] Throughout the dialogue, definitions, beliefs and assumptions are revealed, questioned, unpacked and sharpened. Group values and positions begin to take shape. The dialogic process creates the conditions for the production of collective thought in which active listening and letting go of individual stances enable the possibility of (self) knowledge to emerge.’
‘[…] Active listening involves an open stance toward what the other has to say so that one can be disoriented, and then reoriented by different perspectives, leading to a questioning of what was thought to be known.’
It is letting go of one’s own assumptions, making space for the other as well as other perspectives.
‘[…] Within the context of increasingly diverse student bodies, the Socratic Design method opens up possibilities of decentering Western modernity, its narratives and its valuation of certain ways of knowing through the embodied knowledge of the students from a range of cultural backgrounds.’
In the Socratic Dialogue, we are all practitioners. There is no hierarchy. There are no masters.
‘If within art pedagogy, we teach students to become practitioners of listening rather than masters of discourse, we can promote a different notion of artistic authorship, foster diversity in learning contexts, and reinvest social subjects at one at the same time.’
All quotations in this section come from:
Anik Fournier, ‘Active Listening, Art Pedagogy and the Safeguarding of Difference as a Way of Working with Diversity,’
Journal of Visual Art Practice 19 (2020).
doi.org/10.1080/14702029.2020.1724663
is an essential component, is far from new. It was developed in Greece, around 400 B.C. We have collected all these listening methods so you can easily review them or use them in class. Follow this link to the listening methods overview page.
in the Socratic Dialogue
The Socratic Dialogue, in which active listening is an essential component, is far from new. It was developed in Greece, around 400 B.C.
Socrates believed that true knowledge can be gathered by exploring, researching, thinking through an issue oneself. Tracking down and questioning blind spots and fixed thinking patterns is essential, and the easiest way to undertake this is in a dialogue with someone else, asking questions. Socrates asserted that by asking questions, one could guide someone in obtaining true knowledge. As there are no writings by Socrates himself, the Socratic Dialogue is found in books by his students—in the dialogues of Plato, for instance. In these dialogues, Socrates was often staged to play the role of the questioner.
In recent years, the Socratic Dialogue found more and more resonance in (art) education and training programmes. Within this essay, I would like to refer to one specific example because of the thoroughness with which this method was implemented into the programme and the didactical vision. And because of the nuanced and clear reflection in the publication by Anik Fournier, a teacher on the Bachelor of Fine Arts at ArtEZ (Base for Experiment, Art and Research—BEAR). In order to stay as close as possible to Fournier’s findings and insights, I will mostly quote directly from the publication.
The Socratic Dialogue comes with a strict set of rules. For instance, the participants can only bring in embodied knowledge—knowledge outside of one’s own experience is not allowed. Once one is given the floor—one cannot jump into the conversation—one can be asked to start by summarising the last 15 minutes of the conversation before adding to it. This guarantees that one is urged to listen very carefully to everything that has been said. A conversation is inherently a slow process in which a ‘plurality of perspectives is put forth and they are constantly reiterated.’ All participants are considered to be equal and in this sense; there is a horizontality within the dialogue—there is no hierarchy.
As Fournier notes, the goal is not to come to a clear answer or a consensus. ‘[…] Throughout the dialogue, definitions, beliefs and assumptions are revealed, questioned, unpacked and sharpened. Group values and positions begin to take shape. The dialogic process creates the conditions for the production of collective thought in which active listening and letting go of individual stances enable the possibility of (self) knowledge to emerge.’
‘[…] Active listening involves an open stance toward what the other has to say so that one can be disoriented, and then reoriented by different perspectives, leading to a questioning of what was thought to be known.’
It is letting go of one’s own assumptions, making space for the other as well as other perspectives.
‘[…] Within the context of increasingly diverse student bodies, the Socratic Design method opens up possibilities of decentering Western modernity, its narratives and its valuation of certain ways of knowing through the embodied knowledge of the students from a range of cultural backgrounds.’
In the Socratic Dialogue, we are all practitioners. There is no hierarchy. There are no masters.
‘If within art pedagogy, we teach students to become practitioners of listening rather than masters of discourse, we can promote a different notion of artistic authorship, foster diversity in learning contexts, and reinvest social subjects at one at the same time.’
All quotations in this section come from:
Anik Fournier, ‘Active Listening, Art Pedagogy and the Safeguarding of Difference as a Way of Working with Diversity,’
Journal of Visual Art Practice 19 (2020).
doi.org/10.1080/14702029.2020.1724663
Socrates believed that true knowledge can be gathered by exploring, researching, thinking through an issue oneself. Tracking down and questioning blind spots and fixed thinking patterns is essential, and the easiest way to undertake this is in a dialogue with someone else, asking questions. Socrates asserted that by asking questions, one could guide someone in obtaining true knowledge. As there are no writings by Socrates himself, the Socratic Dialogue is found in books by his students—in the dialogues of Plato, for instance. In these dialogues, Socrates was often staged to play the role of the questioner.
In recent years, the Socratic Dialogue found more and more resonance in (art) education and training programmes. Within this essay, I would like to refer to one specific example because of the thoroughness with which this method was implemented into the programme and the didactical vision. And because of the nuanced and clear reflection in the publication by Anik Fournier, a teacher on the Bachelor of Fine Arts at ArtEZ (Base for Experiment, Art and Research—BEAR). In order to stay as close as possible to Fournier’s findings and insights, I will mostly quote directly from the publication.
The Socratic Dialogue comes with a strict set of rules. For instance, the participants can only bring in embodied knowledge—knowledge outside of one’s own experience is not allowed. Once one is given the floor—one cannot jump into the conversation—one can be asked to start by summarising the last 15 minutes of the conversation before adding to it. This guarantees that one is urged to listen very carefully to everything that has been said. A conversation is inherently a slow process in which a ‘plurality of perspectives is put forth and they are constantly reiterated.’ All participants are considered to be equal and in this sense; there is a horizontality within the dialogue—there is no hierarchy.
As Fournier notes, the goal is not to come to a clear answer or a consensus. ‘[…] Throughout the dialogue, definitions, beliefs and assumptions are revealed, questioned, unpacked and sharpened. Group values and positions begin to take shape. The dialogic process creates the conditions for the production of collective thought in which
ACTIVE LISTENING
in the Socratic Dialogue
The Socratic Dialogue, in which active listening is an essential component, is far from new. It was developed in Greece, around 400 B.C.
Socrates believed that true knowledge can be gathered by exploring, researching, thinking through an issue oneself. Tracking down and questioning blind spots and fixed thinking patterns is essential, and the easiest way to undertake this is in a dialogue with someone else, asking questions. Socrates asserted that by asking questions, one could guide someone in obtaining true knowledge. As there are no writings by Socrates himself, the Socratic Dialogue is found in books by his students—in the dialogues of Plato, for instance. In these dialogues, Socrates was often staged to play the role of the questioner.
In recent years, the Socratic Dialogue found more and more resonance in (art) education and training programmes. Within this essay, I would like to refer to one specific example because of the thoroughness with which this method was implemented into the programme and the didactical vision. And because of the nuanced and clear reflection in the publication by Anik Fournier, a teacher on the Bachelor of Fine Arts at ArtEZ (Base for Experiment, Art and Research—BEAR). In order to stay as close as possible to Fournier’s findings and insights, I will mostly quote directly from the publication.
The Socratic Dialogue comes with a strict set of rules. For instance, the participants can only bring in embodied knowledge—knowledge outside of one’s own experience is not allowed. Once one is given the floor—one cannot jump into the conversation—one can be asked to start by summarising the last 15 minutes of the conversation before adding to it. This guarantees that one is urged to listen very carefully to everything that has been said. A conversation is inherently a slow process in which a ‘plurality of perspectives is put forth and they are constantly reiterated.’ All participants are considered to be equal and in this sense; there is a horizontality within the dialogue—there is no hierarchy.
As Fournier notes, the goal is not to come to a clear answer or a consensus. ‘[…] Throughout the dialogue, definitions, beliefs and assumptions are revealed, questioned, unpacked and sharpened. Group values and positions begin to take shape. The dialogic process creates the conditions for the production of collective thought in which active listening and letting go of individual stances enable the possibility of (self) knowledge to emerge.’
‘[…] Active listening involves an open stance toward what the other has to say so that one can be disoriented, and then reoriented by different perspectives, leading to a questioning of what was thought to be known.’
It is letting go of one’s own assumptions, making space for the other as well as other perspectives.
‘[…] Within the context of increasingly diverse student bodies, the Socratic Design method opens up possibilities of decentering Western modernity, its narratives and its valuation of certain ways of knowing through the embodied knowledge of the students from a range of cultural backgrounds.’
In the Socratic Dialogue, we are all practitioners. There is no hierarchy. There are no masters.
‘If within art pedagogy, we teach students to become practitioners of listening rather than masters of discourse, we can promote a different notion of artistic authorship, foster diversity in learning contexts, and reinvest social subjects at one at the same time.’
All quotations in this section come from:
Anik Fournier, ‘Active Listening, Art Pedagogy and the Safeguarding of Difference as a Way of Working with Diversity,’
Journal of Visual Art Practice 19 (2020).
doi.org/10.1080/14702029.2020.1724663
and letting go of individual stances enable the possibility of (self) knowledge to emerge.’We have collected all these listening methods so you can easily review them or use them in class. Follow this link to the listening methods overview page.
in the Socratic Dialogue
The Socratic Dialogue, in which active listening is an essential component, is far from new. It was developed in Greece, around 400 B.C.
Socrates believed that true knowledge can be gathered by exploring, researching, thinking through an issue oneself. Tracking down and questioning blind spots and fixed thinking patterns is essential, and the easiest way to undertake this is in a dialogue with someone else, asking questions. Socrates asserted that by asking questions, one could guide someone in obtaining true knowledge. As there are no writings by Socrates himself, the Socratic Dialogue is found in books by his students—in the dialogues of Plato, for instance. In these dialogues, Socrates was often staged to play the role of the questioner.
In recent years, the Socratic Dialogue found more and more resonance in (art) education and training programmes. Within this essay, I would like to refer to one specific example because of the thoroughness with which this method was implemented into the programme and the didactical vision. And because of the nuanced and clear reflection in the publication by Anik Fournier, a teacher on the Bachelor of Fine Arts at ArtEZ (Base for Experiment, Art and Research—BEAR). In order to stay as close as possible to Fournier’s findings and insights, I will mostly quote directly from the publication.
The Socratic Dialogue comes with a strict set of rules. For instance, the participants can only bring in embodied knowledge—knowledge outside of one’s own experience is not allowed. Once one is given the floor—one cannot jump into the conversation—one can be asked to start by summarising the last 15 minutes of the conversation before adding to it. This guarantees that one is urged to listen very carefully to everything that has been said. A conversation is inherently a slow process in which a ‘plurality of perspectives is put forth and they are constantly reiterated.’ All participants are considered to be equal and in this sense; there is a horizontality within the dialogue—there is no hierarchy.
As Fournier notes, the goal is not to come to a clear answer or a consensus. ‘[…] Throughout the dialogue, definitions, beliefs and assumptions are revealed, questioned, unpacked and sharpened. Group values and positions begin to take shape. The dialogic process creates the conditions for the production of collective thought in which active listening and letting go of individual stances enable the possibility of (self) knowledge to emerge.’
‘[…] Active listening involves an open stance toward what the other has to say so that one can be disoriented, and then reoriented by different perspectives, leading to a questioning of what was thought to be known.’
It is letting go of one’s own assumptions, making space for the other as well as other perspectives.
‘[…] Within the context of increasingly diverse student bodies, the Socratic Design method opens up possibilities of decentering Western modernity, its narratives and its valuation of certain ways of knowing through the embodied knowledge of the students from a range of cultural backgrounds.’
In the Socratic Dialogue, we are all practitioners. There is no hierarchy. There are no masters.
‘If within art pedagogy, we teach students to become practitioners of listening rather than masters of discourse, we can promote a different notion of artistic authorship, foster diversity in learning contexts, and reinvest social subjects at one at the same time.’
All quotations in this section come from:
Anik Fournier, ‘Active Listening, Art Pedagogy and the Safeguarding of Difference as a Way of Working with Diversity,’
Journal of Visual Art Practice 19 (2020).
doi.org/10.1080/14702029.2020.1724663
‘[…]
ACTIVE LISTENING
in the Socratic Dialogue
The Socratic Dialogue, in which active listening is an essential component, is far from new. It was developed in Greece, around 400 B.C.
Socrates believed that true knowledge can be gathered by exploring, researching, thinking through an issue oneself. Tracking down and questioning blind spots and fixed thinking patterns is essential, and the easiest way to undertake this is in a dialogue with someone else, asking questions. Socrates asserted that by asking questions, one could guide someone in obtaining true knowledge. As there are no writings by Socrates himself, the Socratic Dialogue is found in books by his students—in the dialogues of Plato, for instance. In these dialogues, Socrates was often staged to play the role of the questioner.
In recent years, the Socratic Dialogue found more and more resonance in (art) education and training programmes. Within this essay, I would like to refer to one specific example because of the thoroughness with which this method was implemented into the programme and the didactical vision. And because of the nuanced and clear reflection in the publication by Anik Fournier, a teacher on the Bachelor of Fine Arts at ArtEZ (Base for Experiment, Art and Research—BEAR). In order to stay as close as possible to Fournier’s findings and insights, I will mostly quote directly from the publication.
The Socratic Dialogue comes with a strict set of rules. For instance, the participants can only bring in embodied knowledge—knowledge outside of one’s own experience is not allowed. Once one is given the floor—one cannot jump into the conversation—one can be asked to start by summarising the last 15 minutes of the conversation before adding to it. This guarantees that one is urged to listen very carefully to everything that has been said. A conversation is inherently a slow process in which a ‘plurality of perspectives is put forth and they are constantly reiterated.’ All participants are considered to be equal and in this sense; there is a horizontality within the dialogue—there is no hierarchy.
As Fournier notes, the goal is not to come to a clear answer or a consensus. ‘[…] Throughout the dialogue, definitions, beliefs and assumptions are revealed, questioned, unpacked and sharpened. Group values and positions begin to take shape. The dialogic process creates the conditions for the production of collective thought in which active listening and letting go of individual stances enable the possibility of (self) knowledge to emerge.’
‘[…] Active listening involves an open stance toward what the other has to say so that one can be disoriented, and then reoriented by different perspectives, leading to a questioning of what was thought to be known.’
It is letting go of one’s own assumptions, making space for the other as well as other perspectives.
‘[…] Within the context of increasingly diverse student bodies, the Socratic Design method opens up possibilities of decentering Western modernity, its narratives and its valuation of certain ways of knowing through the embodied knowledge of the students from a range of cultural backgrounds.’
In the Socratic Dialogue, we are all practitioners. There is no hierarchy. There are no masters.
‘If within art pedagogy, we teach students to become practitioners of listening rather than masters of discourse, we can promote a different notion of artistic authorship, foster diversity in learning contexts, and reinvest social subjects at one at the same time.’
All quotations in this section come from:
Anik Fournier, ‘Active Listening, Art Pedagogy and the Safeguarding of Difference as a Way of Working with Diversity,’
Journal of Visual Art Practice 19 (2020).
doi.org/10.1080/14702029.2020.1724663
involves an open stance toward what the other has to say so that one can be disoriented, and then reoriented by different perspectives, leading to a questioning of what was thought to be known.’ We have collected all these listening methods so you can easily review them or use them in class. Follow this link to the listening methods overview page.
in the Socratic Dialogue
The Socratic Dialogue, in which active listening is an essential component, is far from new. It was developed in Greece, around 400 B.C.
Socrates believed that true knowledge can be gathered by exploring, researching, thinking through an issue oneself. Tracking down and questioning blind spots and fixed thinking patterns is essential, and the easiest way to undertake this is in a dialogue with someone else, asking questions. Socrates asserted that by asking questions, one could guide someone in obtaining true knowledge. As there are no writings by Socrates himself, the Socratic Dialogue is found in books by his students—in the dialogues of Plato, for instance. In these dialogues, Socrates was often staged to play the role of the questioner.
In recent years, the Socratic Dialogue found more and more resonance in (art) education and training programmes. Within this essay, I would like to refer to one specific example because of the thoroughness with which this method was implemented into the programme and the didactical vision. And because of the nuanced and clear reflection in the publication by Anik Fournier, a teacher on the Bachelor of Fine Arts at ArtEZ (Base for Experiment, Art and Research—BEAR). In order to stay as close as possible to Fournier’s findings and insights, I will mostly quote directly from the publication.
The Socratic Dialogue comes with a strict set of rules. For instance, the participants can only bring in embodied knowledge—knowledge outside of one’s own experience is not allowed. Once one is given the floor—one cannot jump into the conversation—one can be asked to start by summarising the last 15 minutes of the conversation before adding to it. This guarantees that one is urged to listen very carefully to everything that has been said. A conversation is inherently a slow process in which a ‘plurality of perspectives is put forth and they are constantly reiterated.’ All participants are considered to be equal and in this sense; there is a horizontality within the dialogue—there is no hierarchy.
As Fournier notes, the goal is not to come to a clear answer or a consensus. ‘[…] Throughout the dialogue, definitions, beliefs and assumptions are revealed, questioned, unpacked and sharpened. Group values and positions begin to take shape. The dialogic process creates the conditions for the production of collective thought in which active listening and letting go of individual stances enable the possibility of (self) knowledge to emerge.’
‘[…] Active listening involves an open stance toward what the other has to say so that one can be disoriented, and then reoriented by different perspectives, leading to a questioning of what was thought to be known.’
It is letting go of one’s own assumptions, making space for the other as well as other perspectives.
‘[…] Within the context of increasingly diverse student bodies, the Socratic Design method opens up possibilities of decentering Western modernity, its narratives and its valuation of certain ways of knowing through the embodied knowledge of the students from a range of cultural backgrounds.’
In the Socratic Dialogue, we are all practitioners. There is no hierarchy. There are no masters.
‘If within art pedagogy, we teach students to become practitioners of listening rather than masters of discourse, we can promote a different notion of artistic authorship, foster diversity in learning contexts, and reinvest social subjects at one at the same time.’
All quotations in this section come from:
Anik Fournier, ‘Active Listening, Art Pedagogy and the Safeguarding of Difference as a Way of Working with Diversity,’
Journal of Visual Art Practice 19 (2020).
doi.org/10.1080/14702029.2020.1724663
It is letting go of one’s own assumptions, making space for the other as well as other perspectives.
‘[…] Within the context of increasingly diverse student bodies, the Socratic Design method opens up possibilities of decentering Western modernity, its narratives and its valuation of certain ways of knowing through the embodied knowledge of the students from a range of cultural backgrounds.’
In the Socratic Dialogue, we are all practitioners. There is no hierarchy. There are no masters.
‘If within art pedagogy, we teach students to become practitioners of listening rather than masters of discourse, we can promote a different notion of artistic authorship, foster diversity in learning contexts, and reinvest social subjects at one at the same time.’
All quotations in this section come from:
Anik Fournier, ‘
ACTIVE LISTENING
in the Socratic Dialogue
The Socratic Dialogue, in which active listening is an essential component, is far from new. It was developed in Greece, around 400 B.C.
Socrates believed that true knowledge can be gathered by exploring, researching, thinking through an issue oneself. Tracking down and questioning blind spots and fixed thinking patterns is essential, and the easiest way to undertake this is in a dialogue with someone else, asking questions. Socrates asserted that by asking questions, one could guide someone in obtaining true knowledge. As there are no writings by Socrates himself, the Socratic Dialogue is found in books by his students—in the dialogues of Plato, for instance. In these dialogues, Socrates was often staged to play the role of the questioner.
In recent years, the Socratic Dialogue found more and more resonance in (art) education and training programmes. Within this essay, I would like to refer to one specific example because of the thoroughness with which this method was implemented into the programme and the didactical vision. And because of the nuanced and clear reflection in the publication by Anik Fournier, a teacher on the Bachelor of Fine Arts at ArtEZ (Base for Experiment, Art and Research—BEAR). In order to stay as close as possible to Fournier’s findings and insights, I will mostly quote directly from the publication.
The Socratic Dialogue comes with a strict set of rules. For instance, the participants can only bring in embodied knowledge—knowledge outside of one’s own experience is not allowed. Once one is given the floor—one cannot jump into the conversation—one can be asked to start by summarising the last 15 minutes of the conversation before adding to it. This guarantees that one is urged to listen very carefully to everything that has been said. A conversation is inherently a slow process in which a ‘plurality of perspectives is put forth and they are constantly reiterated.’ All participants are considered to be equal and in this sense; there is a horizontality within the dialogue—there is no hierarchy.
As Fournier notes, the goal is not to come to a clear answer or a consensus. ‘[…] Throughout the dialogue, definitions, beliefs and assumptions are revealed, questioned, unpacked and sharpened. Group values and positions begin to take shape. The dialogic process creates the conditions for the production of collective thought in which active listening and letting go of individual stances enable the possibility of (self) knowledge to emerge.’
‘[…] Active listening involves an open stance toward what the other has to say so that one can be disoriented, and then reoriented by different perspectives, leading to a questioning of what was thought to be known.’
It is letting go of one’s own assumptions, making space for the other as well as other perspectives.
‘[…] Within the context of increasingly diverse student bodies, the Socratic Design method opens up possibilities of decentering Western modernity, its narratives and its valuation of certain ways of knowing through the embodied knowledge of the students from a range of cultural backgrounds.’
In the Socratic Dialogue, we are all practitioners. There is no hierarchy. There are no masters.
‘If within art pedagogy, we teach students to become practitioners of listening rather than masters of discourse, we can promote a different notion of artistic authorship, foster diversity in learning contexts, and reinvest social subjects at one at the same time.’
All quotations in this section come from:
Anik Fournier, ‘Active Listening, Art Pedagogy and the Safeguarding of Difference as a Way of Working with Diversity,’
Journal of Visual Art Practice 19 (2020).
doi.org/10.1080/14702029.2020.1724663
, Art Pedagogy and the Safeguarding of Difference as a Way of Working with Diversity,’ We have collected all these listening methods so you can easily review them or use them in class. Follow this link to the listening methods overview page.
in the Socratic Dialogue
The Socratic Dialogue, in which active listening is an essential component, is far from new. It was developed in Greece, around 400 B.C.
Socrates believed that true knowledge can be gathered by exploring, researching, thinking through an issue oneself. Tracking down and questioning blind spots and fixed thinking patterns is essential, and the easiest way to undertake this is in a dialogue with someone else, asking questions. Socrates asserted that by asking questions, one could guide someone in obtaining true knowledge. As there are no writings by Socrates himself, the Socratic Dialogue is found in books by his students—in the dialogues of Plato, for instance. In these dialogues, Socrates was often staged to play the role of the questioner.
In recent years, the Socratic Dialogue found more and more resonance in (art) education and training programmes. Within this essay, I would like to refer to one specific example because of the thoroughness with which this method was implemented into the programme and the didactical vision. And because of the nuanced and clear reflection in the publication by Anik Fournier, a teacher on the Bachelor of Fine Arts at ArtEZ (Base for Experiment, Art and Research—BEAR). In order to stay as close as possible to Fournier’s findings and insights, I will mostly quote directly from the publication.
The Socratic Dialogue comes with a strict set of rules. For instance, the participants can only bring in embodied knowledge—knowledge outside of one’s own experience is not allowed. Once one is given the floor—one cannot jump into the conversation—one can be asked to start by summarising the last 15 minutes of the conversation before adding to it. This guarantees that one is urged to listen very carefully to everything that has been said. A conversation is inherently a slow process in which a ‘plurality of perspectives is put forth and they are constantly reiterated.’ All participants are considered to be equal and in this sense; there is a horizontality within the dialogue—there is no hierarchy.
As Fournier notes, the goal is not to come to a clear answer or a consensus. ‘[…] Throughout the dialogue, definitions, beliefs and assumptions are revealed, questioned, unpacked and sharpened. Group values and positions begin to take shape. The dialogic process creates the conditions for the production of collective thought in which active listening and letting go of individual stances enable the possibility of (self) knowledge to emerge.’
‘[…] Active listening involves an open stance toward what the other has to say so that one can be disoriented, and then reoriented by different perspectives, leading to a questioning of what was thought to be known.’
It is letting go of one’s own assumptions, making space for the other as well as other perspectives.
‘[…] Within the context of increasingly diverse student bodies, the Socratic Design method opens up possibilities of decentering Western modernity, its narratives and its valuation of certain ways of knowing through the embodied knowledge of the students from a range of cultural backgrounds.’
In the Socratic Dialogue, we are all practitioners. There is no hierarchy. There are no masters.
‘If within art pedagogy, we teach students to become practitioners of listening rather than masters of discourse, we can promote a different notion of artistic authorship, foster diversity in learning contexts, and reinvest social subjects at one at the same time.’
All quotations in this section come from:
Anik Fournier, ‘Active Listening, Art Pedagogy and the Safeguarding of Difference as a Way of Working with Diversity,’
Journal of Visual Art Practice 19 (2020).
doi.org/10.1080/14702029.2020.1724663
Journal of Visual Art Practice 19 (2020).
doi.org/10.1080/14702029.2020.1724663
Vázquez, a teacher as well as an important and highly inspirational decolonial thinker, researches how to transgress the dominant position of contemporaneity, heteronormativity and modernity/coloniality in cultural and academical institutions. The term ‘modern/colonial order’ makes clear that there is no modernity without coloniality, with modernity referring to the Western civilisation, and coloniality to colonialism, enslavement, extraction, exploitation and racism. The field of decoloniality explains how our current world-order has been constructed through modernity/coloniality.
In addition, Vázquez suggests some essential steps to get out of the loop.
First and foremost, it is vital to realise that our institutions, our lives, are still very much based on a modern/colonial order. It is not something from the past. We are living it every day, and repeat it over and over again, in some or the other form. Moreover, this endless repetition has devastating effects. We destroy the Earth, we consume other people’s lives. We wear ourselves out.
In addition, Vázquez suggests some essential steps to get out of the loop.
First and foremost, it is vital to realise that our institutions, our lives, are still very much based on a modern/colonial order. It is not something from the past. We are living it every day, and repeat it over and over again, in some or the other form. Moreover, this endless repetition has devastating effects. We destroy the Earth, we consume other people’s lives. We wear ourselves out.
When not being aware that we are trapped in a dominant frame of thinking, representing, behaving, there is much that we may not hear or see. In order to examine our blind spots, listening is essential.
EMPATHIC LISTENING
We have collected all these
Listening methods
so you can easily review them or use them in class. Follow this link to the This essay introduces a number of different listening methods. In the left column, you will find these methods. We have also collected all these listening methods on one page so you can easily use them in an assignment or in class.
Follow this link to see all the methods collected.
Listening methods
overview page.This essay introduces a number of different listening methods. In the left column, you will find these methods. We have also collected all these listening methods on one page so you can easily use them in an assignment or in class.
Follow this link to see all the methods collected.
In Nonviolent Communication
Developed by psychologist and author Marshall Rosenberg in the 1960s, Nonviolent Communication is based on the premise that our natural state is compassion. Violent (verbal or physical) strategies are considered to be learned behaviours, adopted from the culture we are living in and surrounded by.
Rosenberg states that our communication is regularly more violent than we realise. Often, we are involved in a power fight. We have to learn to connect again. To connect again with each other but also with ourselves. According to Nonviolent Communication, empathy is the key to do this. Through empathy, we can delink ourselves from power struggles and work towards collaboration and trust.
Through practising Nonviolent Communication, ‘we can learn to clarify what we are observing, what emotions we are feeling, what values we want to live by, and what we want to ask of ourselves and others. We will no longer need to use the language of blame, judgment or domination. We can experience the deep pleasure of contributing to each other’s' well-being.’
Nonviolent Communication can be practised not only in our private lives but also at work or in school. Online one can find an ample range of contexts in which Nonviolent Communication is implemented and practised: nursing schools, prisons, conservation science, marital relationships, and so on. Let me take you for a moment to a ‘good example’ within art education to the M.A. Practice Held in Common at ArtEZ University of the Arts, Arnhem, where Pascale Gatzen, fashion designer and founder of this M.A., based the programme on Nonviolent Communication and
EMPATHIC LISTENING
In Nonviolent Communication
Developed by psychologist and author Marshall Rosenberg in the 1960s, Nonviolent Communication is based on the premise that our natural state is compassion. Violent (verbal or physical) strategies are considered to be learned behaviours, adopted from the culture we are living in and surrounded by.
Rosenberg states that our communication is regularly more violent than we realise. Often, we are involved in a power fight. We have to learn to connect again. To connect again with each other but also with ourselves. According to Nonviolent Communication, empathy is the key to do this. Through empathy, we can delink ourselves from power struggles and work towards collaboration and trust.
Through practising Nonviolent Communication, ‘we can learn to clarify what we are observing, what emotions we are feeling, what values we want to live by, and what we want to ask of ourselves and others. We will no longer need to use the language of blame, judgment or domination. We can experience the deep pleasure of contributing to each other’s' well-being.’
Nonviolent Communication can be practised not only in our private lives but also at work or in school. Online one can find an ample range of contexts in which Nonviolent Communication is implemented and practised: nursing schools, prisons, conservation science, marital relationships, and so on. Let me take you for a moment to a ‘good example’ within art education to the M.A. Practice Held in Common at ArtEZ University of the Arts, Arnhem, where Pascale Gatzen, fashion designer and founder of this M.A., based the programme on Nonviolent Communication and empathic listening.
Gatzen explains the relation between language and the perception of the world, the other, and ourselves: ‘We learned to use language to compare and classify people and their actions, including ourselves and our own. Our attention became focused on analysing and determining levels of wrongness.’ She continues by asking: ‘[…] What if our use of language is structuring our thoughts in such a way that we inevitably perceive the world in dualities and categories? What if our dualistic mind continues to create stories of separation and opposition? […].’
What is needed to reconnect? How can we possibly overturn this dualistic mindset we have incorporated and return to what Rosenberg considers to be our natural state, i.e., a state of compassion?
As Gatzen puts it: ‘Can we imagine a consciousness, a language that is life-affirming? Can we imagine a use of language that emerges as a process always in connection with that which is alive in ourselves and others?’
In Practice Held in Common, Gatzen uses the term ‘Compassionate Communication’ instead of ‘Nonviolent Communication’ in order to stress the compassion and empathy used within this method.
‘Empathic connection is an understanding of the heart in which we see the beauty in the other person and the life that’s alive in them. Empathy involves emptying the mind and listening with our whole being. When we listen to ourselves and to others with our whole being, we focus on listening for the underlying feelings, needs, and requests.
Once we understand and connect to the underlying needs in ourselves and in others, we can create strategies for meeting these needs in ways that create connection, joy, and well-being for everyone.’
Following an entirely different route than the one of competition and individualism we are all too acquainted with, Gatzen stimulates an artistic practice that is entirely embedded in the philosophy of compassionate communication. This creation starts ‘from a framework of shared human needs and values’ and ‘the production of ourselves as a common subject.’
. We have collected all these listening methods so you can easily review them or use them in class. Follow this link to the listening methods overview page.
In Nonviolent Communication
Developed by psychologist and author Marshall Rosenberg in the 1960s, Nonviolent Communication is based on the premise that our natural state is compassion. Violent (verbal or physical) strategies are considered to be learned behaviours, adopted from the culture we are living in and surrounded by.
Rosenberg states that our communication is regularly more violent than we realise. Often, we are involved in a power fight. We have to learn to connect again. To connect again with each other but also with ourselves. According to Nonviolent Communication, empathy is the key to do this. Through empathy, we can delink ourselves from power struggles and work towards collaboration and trust.
Through practising Nonviolent Communication, ‘we can learn to clarify what we are observing, what emotions we are feeling, what values we want to live by, and what we want to ask of ourselves and others. We will no longer need to use the language of blame, judgment or domination. We can experience the deep pleasure of contributing to each other’s' well-being.’
Nonviolent Communication can be practised not only in our private lives but also at work or in school. Online one can find an ample range of contexts in which Nonviolent Communication is implemented and practised: nursing schools, prisons, conservation science, marital relationships, and so on. Let me take you for a moment to a ‘good example’ within art education to the M.A. Practice Held in Common at ArtEZ University of the Arts, Arnhem, where Pascale Gatzen, fashion designer and founder of this M.A., based the programme on Nonviolent Communication and empathic listening.
Gatzen explains the relation between language and the perception of the world, the other, and ourselves: ‘We learned to use language to compare and classify people and their actions, including ourselves and our own. Our attention became focused on analysing and determining levels of wrongness.’ She continues by asking: ‘[…] What if our use of language is structuring our thoughts in such a way that we inevitably perceive the world in dualities and categories? What if our dualistic mind continues to create stories of separation and opposition? […].’
What is needed to reconnect? How can we possibly overturn this dualistic mindset we have incorporated and return to what Rosenberg considers to be our natural state, i.e., a state of compassion?
As Gatzen puts it: ‘Can we imagine a consciousness, a language that is life-affirming? Can we imagine a use of language that emerges as a process always in connection with that which is alive in ourselves and others?’
In Practice Held in Common, Gatzen uses the term ‘Compassionate Communication’ instead of ‘Nonviolent Communication’ in order to stress the compassion and empathy used within this method.
‘Empathic connection is an understanding of the heart in which we see the beauty in the other person and the life that’s alive in them. Empathy involves emptying the mind and listening with our whole being. When we listen to ourselves and to others with our whole being, we focus on listening for the underlying feelings, needs, and requests.
Once we understand and connect to the underlying needs in ourselves and in others, we can create strategies for meeting these needs in ways that create connection, joy, and well-being for everyone.’
Following an entirely different route than the one of competition and individualism we are all too acquainted with, Gatzen stimulates an artistic practice that is entirely embedded in the philosophy of compassionate communication. This creation starts ‘from a framework of shared human needs and values’ and ‘the production of ourselves as a common subject.’
Marshall Rosenberg, Nonviolent Communication: A Language of Life (Encinitas, CA: PuddleDancer Press, 2015).
This quote can be retrieved on the website of the Center for Nonviolent Communication, which was founded by Rosenberg in 1984:
www.cnvc.org/learn-nvc/what-is-nvc Pascale Gatzen, ‘TAKE BACK FASHION! FASHION HELD IN COMMON. Searching for the new luxury?’ ArtEZ, 2019.
apria.artez.nl/take-back-fashion/Gatzen explains the relation between language and the perception of the world, the other, and ourselves: ‘We learned to use language to compare and classify people and their actions, including ourselves and our own. Our attention became focused on analysing and determining levels of wrongness.’ She continues by asking: ‘[…] What if our use of language is structuring our thoughts in such a way that we inevitably perceive the world in dualities and categories? What if our dualistic mind continues to create stories of separation and opposition? […].’
What is needed to reconnect? How can we possibly overturn this dualistic mindset we have incorporated and return to what Rosenberg considers to be our natural state, i.e., a state of compassion?
As Gatzen puts it: ‘Can we imagine a consciousness, a language that is life-affirming? Can we imagine a use of language that emerges as a process always in connection with that which is alive in ourselves and others?’
In Practice Held in Common, Gatzen uses the term ‘Compassionate Communication’ instead of ‘Nonviolent Communication’ in order to stress the compassion and empathy used within this method.
‘Empathic connection is an understanding of the heart in which we see the beauty in the other person and the life that’s alive in them. Empathy involves emptying the mind and listening with our whole being. When we listen to ourselves and to others with our whole being, we focus on listening for the underlying feelings, needs, and requests.
Once we understand and connect to the underlying needs in ourselves and in others, we can create strategies for meeting these needs in ways that create connection, joy, and well-being for everyone.’
Following an entirely different route than the one of competition and individualism we are all too acquainted with, Gatzen stimulates an artistic practice that is entirely embedded in the philosophy of compassionate communication. This creation starts ‘from a framework of shared human needs and values’ and ‘the production of ourselves as a common subject.’
Marshall Rosenberg, Nonviolent Communication: A Language of Life (Encinitas, CA: PuddleDancer Press, 2015).
This quote can be retrieved on the website of the Center for Nonviolent Communication, which was founded by Rosenberg in 1984:
www.cnvc.org/learn-nvc/what-is-nvc Pascale Gatzen, ‘TAKE BACK FASHION! FASHION HELD IN COMMON. Searching for the new luxury?’ ArtEZ, 2019.
apria.artez.nl/take-back-fashion/We ‘become deaf and incapable of listening to other worlds’ when using the tools of modernity.
Something else is needed. Our deafness cannot be cured from within. We need to look beyond the modern/colonial order to get out of the loop. But how?
Decolonial listening, needed to bridge the colonial difference, requires humbling modernity and disposing yourself of the idea that your view is ‘the only view, or the universal value, or the contemporary view […].’
Vázquez refers to the ‘arrogant ignorance’ of modernity.
The arrogance of being convinced that your view, our view, is the only one keeps us imprisoned in ignorance. From this point-of-view, ‘you cannot be in the disposition of listening or be capable of listening to what goes beyond your framework of understanding.’
What is instead asked for is ‘relating to the outside of your epistemic and aesthetic framework so that all your categories, your systems of thought, your senses become located, become humbled and open to real interactions and a growing with other worlds.’
*
Dankert 2019.
Something else is needed. Our deafness cannot be cured from within. We need to look beyond the modern/colonial order to get out of the loop. But how?
Decolonial listening, needed to bridge the colonial difference, requires humbling modernity and disposing yourself of the idea that your view is ‘the only view, or the universal value, or the contemporary view […].’
Vázquez refers to the ‘arrogant ignorance’ of modernity.
*
E.g., Rosa Wevers, ‘Decolonial Aesthesis and the Museum: An Interview with Rolando Vázquez Melken,’ Stedelijk Studies Journal 8 (2019), DOI: 10.54533/StedStud.vol008.art06.
The arrogance of being convinced that your view, our view, is the only one keeps us imprisoned in ignorance. From this point-of-view, ‘you cannot be in the disposition of listening or be capable of listening to what goes beyond your framework of understanding.’
*
Dankert 2019.
What is instead asked for is ‘relating to the outside of your epistemic and aesthetic framework so that all your categories, your systems of thought, your senses become located, become humbled and open to real interactions and a growing with other worlds.’
*
Ibid.
Truly listening is obviously much more than merely taking in the vibrations, the technical definition of sound. It involves listening as a living being, as a human. With all our senses. Our bodies. Our emotions. Our experiences.
It is being present, making space for whatever may come, with an open attitude, an open mind, an open heart.
Listening is the willingness to overrule your own assumptions. Listening is being vulnerable.
It is being present, making space for whatever may come, with an open attitude, an open mind, an open heart.
Listening is the willingness to overrule your own assumptions. Listening is being vulnerable.
There is a danger in truly listening.
When truly listening, you don’t have complete control. You don’t know what is coming. Unexpected things may happen.
Maybe you will feel.
Maybe you will feel uncomfortable.
Suddenly seeing your blind spots lighting up. Realising that what you previously took for granted needs to be reconsidered. Profoundly. And having to let go of the stability based on the false assumption that your framework was the only correct one.
Truly listening may challenge your thinking and acting.
Listening can force you to change.
As Ieva Gudaiytė, a researcher of the ties between sound, politics and technology in Eastern European contexts, writes:
‘[…]
To listen to a protest is to be disturbed.
To know is to be disturbed.’
I suggest adding:
To truly listen is to be disturbed.
To know is to be disturbed.
When truly listening, you don’t have complete control. You don’t know what is coming. Unexpected things may happen.
Maybe you will feel.
Maybe you will feel uncomfortable.
Suddenly seeing your blind spots lighting up. Realising that what you previously took for granted needs to be reconsidered. Profoundly. And having to let go of the stability based on the false assumption that your framework was the only correct one.
Truly listening may challenge your thinking and acting.
Listening can force you to change.
As Ieva Gudaiytė, a researcher of the ties between sound, politics and technology in Eastern European contexts, writes:
‘[…]
To listen to a protest is to be disturbed.
To know is to be disturbed.’
*
Ieva Gudaiytė, ‘Experiencing the In-between-ness,’ Soapbox, Practices of Musicking: (Re)thinking Musical Experience Beyond Limited Understandings of ‘Listening’ (2019), www.soapboxjournal.net/online-articles/experiencing-the-in-between-ness.
I suggest adding:
To truly listen is to be disturbed.
To know is to be disturbed.
Listening is caring.
Caring is considered to be soft and feminine. Also, it is structurally underrated.
When there is a woman at the top, listed companies are penalised by the financial market over the course of two years. This decrease in value is not related to the performance of the companies, nor to that of the women at the top. But to the fear that women would pay more attention to social policy. And that they consequently would not strive for maximum profit.
When there is a woman at the top, listed companies are penalised by the financial market over the course of two years. This decrease in value is not related to the performance of the companies, nor to that of the women at the top. But to the fear that women would pay more attention to social policy. And that they consequently would not strive for maximum profit.
*
Hans Nauta, ‘Een Vrouw aan de Top? Daar Heeft een Bedrijf Twee Jaar Last van,’ Trouw, December 4, 2019;
see also Isabelle Solal and Kaisa Snellman, ‘Women Don’t Mean Business? Gender Penalty in Board Composition,’ Organization Science 30 (2019): pp. 1270-1288, doi.org/10.1287/orsc.2019.1301.
And I am wondering.
Isn’t that what the world truly needs at this point in time?
Caring by truly listening to one another, to the planet, to our society.
Caring by profoundly listening to oneself.
Isn’t that what the world truly needs at this point in time?
Caring by truly listening to one another, to the planet, to our society.
Caring by profoundly listening to oneself.
RELATIONAL LISTENING
We have collected all these
Listening methods
so you can easily review them or use them in class. Follow this link to the This essay introduces a number of different listening methods. In the left column, you will find these methods. We have also collected all these listening methods on one page so you can easily use them in an assignment or in class.
Follow this link to see all the methods collected.
Listening methods
overview page.This essay introduces a number of different listening methods. In the left column, you will find these methods. We have also collected all these listening methods on one page so you can easily use them in an assignment or in class.
Follow this link to see all the methods collected.
In Ubuntu
Mangwanani, marar sei? - Good morning, did you sleep well?
Ndarara, kana mararawo. - I slept well, if you slept well.
While I feel humbled and somewhat hesitant to mention Ubuntu in this context, as a Westerner who is only superficially familiar with some general principles of this complex and layered African philosophy, I feel it is important to mention Ubuntu as a possibility to reverse our neoliberal way of dealing with each other—and therefore, also communicating.
Relationality is considered to be essential in Ubuntu, an African philosophy that is not only social but also deeply ethical rooted in different geographical areas and cultures.
‘I think therefore I am’ is a phrase in Western philosophy most of us are familiar with. In Ubuntu, this individualism is replaced with relationality: ‘Umuntu ngumuntu ngabantu.’ A person is a person because of others (Nguni, referring to Bantu-speaking groups in Southern Africa).
We belong to a collective. As the recently deceased Desmond Tutu puts it in his book No Future Without Forgiveness: ‘I am human because I belong. I participate, I share.’ Ubuntu means humanity; a humanity with relationality at its core. This philosophy is completely at odds with the neoliberal ideology we live daily, in which we are responsible for our own success, as well as for our own failure. According to Ubuntu, ‘no one can be self-sufficient and interdependence is a reality for all.’
‘[...] A person with Ubuntu is open and available to others, affirming of others, does not feel threatened that others are able and good, for he or she has a proper self-assurance that comes from knowing that he or she belongs in a greater whole and is diminished when others are humiliated or diminished, when others are tortured or oppressed, or treated as if they were less than who they are.’
The morning greeting of the Shona Culture in Zimbabwe with which this section began manifests the extent of the interdependence tangible. Obviously, Ubuntu greatly influenced everyday language and communication—more correctly, they are Ubuntu. In addition, the use of language and way of communicating—using, for instance, story-telling and proverbs, emanating from Ubuntu—largely shapes how people construct their self-image, their lives and their communities.
Listening is deeply related to interconnectedness and how to live harmoniously with each other. Interestingly, according to Bantu cultures, listening is related to much more than hearing with our ears. It also includes smelling, touching and feeling, as well as understanding each other within a practice of reciprocity, relationality and dialogue. Listening can be considered as co-constructing with others who are part of the conversation and come to common grounds.
There is a re-appreciation of Ubuntu and indigenous education in African culture. Among others, Letseka stresses the importance of transmission of culture from generation to generation. In that context, he considers it important to depart from his own native knowledge. But perhaps educational institutions in general and art schools particularly could embrace some of the core principles of Ubuntu in order to explore an alternative way of being-in-relation and communicating and complement the Western paradigms.
Although Ubuntu does not offer an easy and structured quick-to-apply method, one can get practically inspired by Ubuntu to think and act differently. In this respect, Nussbaum describes Ubuntu as ‘flexible fluid stream, a fountain, to do hundreds and thousands and millions of acts to really affirm our fellow human beings and build community.’
- Barbara Nussbaum, ‘African Culture and Ubuntu: Reflections of a South African in America,’ World Business Academy, Rekindling the Human Spirit in Business 17 (2003): p. 4.
I am using the word ‘Ubuntu’ throughout this section, although I am aware that in different geographical areas or cultures of Africa, other words are used.
Desmond Tutu, No Future Without Forgiveness (New York: The Crown Publishing Group, 2000), p. 31.
Nussbaum 2003, p. 2.
Tutu 2000, p. 31.
Cecile Garmon and Mandhia Mgijima, ‘Using Ubuntu: A New Research Trend for Developing Effective Communication across Cultural Barriers,’ Communication Faculty Publication Paper 1 (2012).
digitalcommons.wku.edu/comm_fac_pub/1 Moeketsi Letseka, ‘Educating for Ubuntu/Botho: Lessons from Basotho Indegenous Education,’ Open Journal of Philosophy (2013), DOI: 10.4236/ojpp.2013.32051.
joan.Osa Oviawe, ‘How to Rediscover the Ubuntu Paradigm in Education,’ International Review of Education 62 (2016): p. 1–10.
doi.org/10.1007/s11159-016-9545-x
Barbara Nussbaum, ‘Sprinkling Ubuntu on Capitalism,’ TEDxStellenbosch, YouTube, 2011, 07:26.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=mZ363jLe5dY
Humility, caution, kindness, family-oriented approach, personal communication as well as clearness, decisiveness and truthfulness are just some of the words used to describe the styles of successful female leadership during the first period of Covid-19.
Although one could be glad that ‘softer’ aspects are considered to be valuable, at the same time one should question if this does not involve, once again, a reproduction of stereotypical, essentialist notions of sexual difference between men and women. Heteronormativity is part of the modern/colonial order; so is gender binary. A binary related to invisibility, inequality, inferiority and violence, and a system of oppression and domination.
‘The values of a community based, empathetic, and personable leadership style that values human lives proves to be the most sustainable in the long term—why, then, should these values be pertained to the ‘feminine domain’? Isn’t this the time to undo the notions that these values are specifically feminine or female, and to further deconstruct the ever so sticky patriarchal notions of biological determinism for a more hopeful future?’
Although one could be glad that ‘softer’ aspects are considered to be valuable, at the same time one should question if this does not involve, once again, a reproduction of stereotypical, essentialist notions of sexual difference between men and women. Heteronormativity is part of the modern/colonial order; so is gender binary. A binary related to invisibility, inequality, inferiority and violence, and a system of oppression and domination.
‘The values of a community based, empathetic, and personable leadership style that values human lives proves to be the most sustainable in the long term—why, then, should these values be pertained to the ‘feminine domain’? Isn’t this the time to undo the notions that these values are specifically feminine or female, and to further deconstruct the ever so sticky patriarchal notions of biological determinism for a more hopeful future?’
*
David Oppenheimer, quoted in Diana Helmich and Emma Post, ‘Success of Women Leadership during COVID-19: At Risk of Essentialising “The Feminine”?’ Utrecht University, www.uu.nl/en/news/success-of-women-leadership-during-covid-19-at-risk-of-essentialising-the-feminine. Also interesting in this respect is Emancipator, an organisation striving for the emancipation of men, founded by Jens van Tricht: www.emancipator.nl/en/mens-emancipation/.
Could truly listening entail the real revolution?
And I hear you asking. ‘What is this real revolution? In recent and far-away history, we encountered quite a few. Not all delivered the liberation they advertised. Moreover, most revolutions did not intend to overturn power structures as much as they were focusing on helping into the saddle a minority who also wanted part of the cake.’
I can't help but agree with this.
But imagine.
That there could be a revolution that would overturn the existing power structures in such a way that there is no dominant framework one could cling to. But, in the words of Arturo Escobar , a ‘pluriverse,’ a pluriverse of frameworks, of worlds, giving a home to all of us.
And I hear you asking. ‘What is this real revolution? In recent and far-away history, we encountered quite a few. Not all delivered the liberation they advertised. Moreover, most revolutions did not intend to overturn power structures as much as they were focusing on helping into the saddle a minority who also wanted part of the cake.’
I can't help but agree with this.
But imagine.
That there could be a revolution that would overturn the existing power structures in such a way that there is no dominant framework one could cling to. But, in the words of Arturo Escobar
*
Arturo Escobar, Designs for the Pluriverse: Radical Interdependence, Autonomy, and the Making of Worlds (North Carolina: Duke University Press, 2018).
*
As a starting point into the writing of Escobar, I would like to recommend a podcast in which Escobar is interviewed by Sophie Krier and Erik Wong. ‘Warming Up to the Pluriverse #7: On Designing Otherwise,’ Het Nieuwe Instituut, December 3, 2021, pod.link/1600512882/episode/fc32177a36e8c811cdda09f631ea5010.
PODCAST:
More and more, I become aware that truly listening is first and foremost questioning one’s own conditioning, one’s own programmes and frameworks.
This is not soft. It is hard work.
It is shedding light on the spots you would rather hide forever. It is seeing your certainties, which were apparently built on quicksand, suddenly collapse. It is unlearning, with no quick alternative hidden in your sleeve. It is exploring your own position within sometimes hidden power structures as well as questioning what you once assumed to be your identity. Perhaps it is also dwelling in a no-man’s land for some time.
You throw yourself into the battle.
Besides the hard and sometimes painful work, it is also an adventure.
The question ‘Who are you?’ that we were brought up with changes into ‘Who are you in relation?’
In relation, something else can originate. Something you share. Truly listening becomes reconnecting.
With the other.
With yourself.
This is not soft. It is hard work.
It is shedding light on the spots you would rather hide forever. It is seeing your certainties, which were apparently built on quicksand, suddenly collapse. It is unlearning
*
Annette Krauss, an art educator and conceptual-based artist addressing the intersection of art, politics and everyday life, explores the concept of Unlearning in various contexts, such as art institutions and secondary schools in a long-term project consisting of workshops, exercises, publications and exhibitions. Annette Krauss, ‘Sites for Unlearning. On the Material, Artistic and Political Dimensions of Processes of Unlearning,’ PHD dissertation, 2017, Academy of Fine Arts Vienna.
You throw yourself into the battle.
Besides the hard and sometimes painful work, it is also an adventure.
The question ‘Who are you?’ that we were brought up with changes into ‘Who are you in relation?’
In relation, something else can originate. Something you share. Truly listening becomes reconnecting.
With the other.
With yourself.
SHOCKINGLY PROFOUND LISTENING
We have collected all these
Listening methods
so you can easily review them or use them in class. Follow this link to the This essay introduces a number of different listening methods. In the left column, you will find these methods. We have also collected all these listening methods on one page so you can easily use them in an assignment or in class.
Follow this link to see all the methods collected.
Listening methods
overview page.This essay introduces a number of different listening methods. In the left column, you will find these methods. We have also collected all these listening methods on one page so you can easily use them in an assignment or in class.
Follow this link to see all the methods collected.
In Deep Listening Practices
Deep Listening is a term used in various contexts. In this section, I will briefly discuss two practices that have developed Deep Listening in their own way and will elaborate on a third practice in which Deep Listening is specifically applied to collectively re-democratise.
DEEP LISTENING 1. PAULINE OLIVEROS
Composer, performer, educator and pioneer in electronic music, Pauline Oliveros, coined the term ‘Deep Listening’ to describe a practice of profound attention to the sonic environment. The sonic environment consists of the sounds one can hear outside, as well as the ‘sounds’ within. The practice combines sound and kinetic bodily and meditative exercises.
‘How many sounds can you hear all at once?’
‘Take a walk at night. Walk so silently that the bottoms of your feet become ears.’
Deep Listening exercises originated in the time of the women liberation movement. Oliveros decided to initiate the Sonic Meditation Group for women only. They called themselves the ♀Ensemble because of the fact that ‘women were held down, musically, so long.’
‘Deep Listening is listening in every possible way to everything possible to hear no matter what you are doing. Such intense listening includes the sounds of daily life, of nature, of one’s own thoughts as well as musical sounds. Deep Listening represents a heightened state of awareness and connects to all that there is.’
Practising this kind of attention, opens up a world of possibilities and layers of existence. It is ‘exploring the relationships among any and all sounds whether natural or technological, intended or unintended, real, remembered or imaginary.’
Furthermore, listening as a kind of meditative practice was not isolated from action nor from activism. On the contrary. From within this listening, one could take action. After all, ‘Deep Listening takes us below the surface of our consciousness and helps to change or dissolve limiting boundaries.’
Oliveros herself listened in order to speak up. In 1970 she wrote a passionate article in which she not only denounced the subordinate position of female composers, but also called for concrete change.
Subsequently, she introduced herself in the following way in an avant-garde music magazine in 1971:
‘Pauline Oliveros is a two-legged human being, a female, lesbian, musician, composer, among other things which contribute to her identity.’
Well aware of the importance of this coming out, she related listening to speaking up and making public one’s inner experiences. In 1974, she wrote: ‘How many of you out there think you are in the minority? If everyone came out of the closet the world would change overnight.’
Considering healing possible when the utterance of inner experiences is accepted by others, Oliveros pleads for ‘an atmosphere of opening for all to be heard, with the understanding that listening is healing.’
DEEP LISTENING 2. ROSAMUND OLIVER
Deep Listening is also used to refer to a technique developed by psychotherapist Rosamund Oliver in 2003, which is based on humanistic psychology and the Buddhist tradition of mindfulness and compassion. In this technique (in full, Awareness Centred Deep Listening), awareness is central. You are attuned to yourself as well as to the speaker.
Three specific aspects are of importance using the technique of Deep Listening.
Embodied awareness. When listening, listen as a body/with your body. Your body is the sounding board of what is being communicated.
Ask yourself, what do you feel now, at this moment?
Supportive presence. When emptying the mind, you create a space in which you are entirely present and can support the other.
What is present in your mental space? What influences what you are hearing?
Compassionate connection. As the listener, you intend that your listening contributes to the process of the other. Take a moment in the time before the session starts to connect with that intention and feel this through and through. During the session, you go back and forth between attention on the speaker and attention on yourself.
How does your body feel at this moment, now this is said? What do you think? Can you let go of distracting thoughts? After having emptied your mind, return to the speaker with your attention.
Practising this method entails that you first learn to listen to yourself. It is important to discern between the own needs and interests and those of the other. If you are not able to do this, you cannot deeply listen to another. You are in the way. Deep Listening is listening without feeling the urge to advise or rescue someone. It is not filling in the silence gaps that may fall. If you do not project expectations onto the speaker, and you do not judge in any way, you are creating a safe space in which the speaker can explore openly what is present. This process of discovering oneself in the presence of someone else can be experienced as liberating.
A small, but possibly transformative, exercise:
Agree with the speaker that you will listen to them for 10 minutes. All you are going to do is listen. You don’t give any comments nor advice.
As a listener, you just let the words come in and you feel what this does to you.
After 10 minutes, thank the person who spoke. This may feel a little awkward at first, but if you practise this with the same person more than once, it will be extremely valuable to both of you.
If you also feel the need to listen intently, switch roles and talk for 10 minutes while the other person listens.
After this exercise, feel what this exercise has done for you, as a speaker or listener or both.
DEEP LISTENING 3. GRASSROOTS TO GLOBAL
That our world and the Earth are in bad shape is, as suggested in the beginning of this essay, old news. How, then, to fundamentally change the direction of more crises and catastrophes we are headed towards? And how to do that collectively?
Recently, numerous initiatives exploring how to return power to the citizen and to rethink and renew current democratic principles have sprung up in various contexts and at different levels of power. These initiatives are not seldomly situated in the art or cultural field. Think, for instance, of the New World Summit, initiated by visual artist Jonas Staal, which is an artistic and political organisation that develops parliaments with and for stateless states, autonomist groups, and blacklisted political organisations. Or Netwerk Democratie, a platform for democratic innovation co-founded by Josien Pieterse, co-director of Framer Framed, a platform for art and culture based in Amsterdam. Netwerk Democratie provided in collaboration with Pakhuis de Zwijger a publication series based on a long-term public programme focusing on the transitions towards a new democracy based on commons, digital democracy, deliberation and other forms,
Although there are many initiatives worthwhile elaborating on, I would like to highlight one that explicitly applies Deep Listening (or as they call it, Engaged Listening) in its way of working towards system change.
Grass Roots to Global (G2G), which originated in Scotland but embraces international collaboration, aims at ‘re-democratising democracy’ and ‘reclaiming our world’ by ‘collectively creating decision making processes that are compelling, fair, transparent, morally legitimate, emotionally intelligent, decolonized and culturally diverse.’
As Eva Schonveld and Justin Kenrick, two of the founders of G2G, explain:
‘We need to find new ways to gather, to make decisions, to organize, and to take responsibility for each other, so that we can respect and nourish all life, since those tasked with this responsibility have so disastrously and inevitably failed, since the dominant system’s purpose is not to respect and nourish but to control, co-opt and exploit.
We also need to re-imagine how we rediscover, create and maintain the enduring or emergent alternatives. Too often they unintentionally include (or fail to challenge) assumptions based on our dominant lived experience of (mostly) patriarchal, racist, hierarchical cultures. The growing understanding of personal and cultural trauma—its ubiquity, its unconscious nature, its debilitating effects, and, most crucially, our ability to learn and heal from it, provide radical possibilities for uncovering and shifting those unconscious (traumatized) assumptions and for (re)discovering genuinely fresh and emancipatory ways of being and working together.’
The stress on de-traumatisation is not a coincidental one. G2G believes that when acting and reacting from trauma, it is impossible to empathise, nor is it possible to make clear decisions. Furthermore, G2G also points out that ‘when we reach positions of power in our dominant systems we come to embody (actively or reactively) the sense of having to be something other than who we are, having to marginalise our lived experience to fit with its demands.’
In the process of collectively re-democratising, listening deeply to oneself and to the other is key. Specifically, the approach, which we are all invited to use and share, consists of four stages of listening, meeting, proposing and making decisions. The first stage focuses on listening in one-on-one interviews. In the other stages, which are (or will be) situated in various forms of assemblies, listening is considered to be central as well.
In the first stage, listening is used to connect, restore trust and to gather a shared understanding on how the system works and impacts people’s lives and views. The G2G toolkit offers three core questions that can structure the interview:
WHAT do you see as the biggest challenges facing the world?
And how do they affect you and yours?
WHY is this problem happening?
Who benefits from it, and is anything being done about it?
If we were serious about tackling this problem, HOW would we?
And where would we start?
G2G stresses the importance of listening across differences with respect to building up inclusive and collective decision-making processes. This means not only initiating contact with people ‘who aren’t like you,’ but also avoiding reactions when you do not agree. Instead, you want to know more about how the system has affected the live of the interviewee, and how this has led them to the current view, especially if you do not agree with this view. The attitude advised by G2G is a practical as well as a very effective one. ‘Giving space to another person, with an attitude of genuine curiosity and an assumption that even if we deeply disagree with what they’re saying, we are able to really get why they think how they do.’
In order to fully embrace this ‘genuine curiosity,’ it is important to be aware of yourself in the conversation. In the G2G guidelines on listening, the following steps are advised:
BEFORE: What do I need to do for myself to feel ready to put my opinions (or judgements, preconceptions, prejudices etc.) aside while I’m speaking to this person?
DURING: What else do I need to know to fully understand why this person thinks the way they do? It is easy to disagree with opinions. It is, however, impossible to disagree with experiences. Ask about experiences, an example, a story to illustrate a view.
AFTER: How do I see connections between what has been said and other systemic impacts (violence, climate change, inequality etc.)?
I would like to finish this section, as well as this essay, with a quote by Ben Okri, a Nigerian poet, novelist and cultural activist, from whom I borrowed the title of this section.
‘It is easier to be clever than to listen. There’s about 3 layers of listening: there’s ordinary listening; there’s deep listening; and there’s
SHOCKINGLY PROFOUND LISTENING
In Deep Listening Practices
Deep Listening is a term used in various contexts. In this section, I will briefly discuss two practices that have developed Deep Listening in their own way and will elaborate on a third practice in which Deep Listening is specifically applied to collectively re-democratise.
DEEP LISTENING 1. PAULINE OLIVEROS
Composer, performer, educator and pioneer in electronic music, Pauline Oliveros, coined the term ‘Deep Listening’ to describe a practice of profound attention to the sonic environment. The sonic environment consists of the sounds one can hear outside, as well as the ‘sounds’ within. The practice combines sound and kinetic bodily and meditative exercises.
‘How many sounds can you hear all at once?’
‘Take a walk at night. Walk so silently that the bottoms of your feet become ears.’
Deep Listening exercises originated in the time of the women liberation movement. Oliveros decided to initiate the Sonic Meditation Group for women only. They called themselves the ♀Ensemble because of the fact that ‘women were held down, musically, so long.’
‘Deep Listening is listening in every possible way to everything possible to hear no matter what you are doing. Such intense listening includes the sounds of daily life, of nature, of one’s own thoughts as well as musical sounds. Deep Listening represents a heightened state of awareness and connects to all that there is.’
Practising this kind of attention, opens up a world of possibilities and layers of existence. It is ‘exploring the relationships among any and all sounds whether natural or technological, intended or unintended, real, remembered or imaginary.’
Furthermore, listening as a kind of meditative practice was not isolated from action nor from activism. On the contrary. From within this listening, one could take action. After all, ‘Deep Listening takes us below the surface of our consciousness and helps to change or dissolve limiting boundaries.’
Oliveros herself listened in order to speak up. In 1970 she wrote a passionate article in which she not only denounced the subordinate position of female composers, but also called for concrete change.
Subsequently, she introduced herself in the following way in an avant-garde music magazine in 1971:
‘Pauline Oliveros is a two-legged human being, a female, lesbian, musician, composer, among other things which contribute to her identity.’
Well aware of the importance of this coming out, she related listening to speaking up and making public one’s inner experiences. In 1974, she wrote: ‘How many of you out there think you are in the minority? If everyone came out of the closet the world would change overnight.’
Considering healing possible when the utterance of inner experiences is accepted by others, Oliveros pleads for ‘an atmosphere of opening for all to be heard, with the understanding that listening is healing.’
DEEP LISTENING 2. ROSAMUND OLIVER
Deep Listening is also used to refer to a technique developed by psychotherapist Rosamund Oliver in 2003, which is based on humanistic psychology and the Buddhist tradition of mindfulness and compassion. In this technique (in full, Awareness Centred Deep Listening), awareness is central. You are attuned to yourself as well as to the speaker.
Three specific aspects are of importance using the technique of Deep Listening.
Embodied awareness. When listening, listen as a body/with your body. Your body is the sounding board of what is being communicated.
Ask yourself, what do you feel now, at this moment?
Supportive presence. When emptying the mind, you create a space in which you are entirely present and can support the other.
What is present in your mental space? What influences what you are hearing?
Compassionate connection. As the listener, you intend that your listening contributes to the process of the other. Take a moment in the time before the session starts to connect with that intention and feel this through and through. During the session, you go back and forth between attention on the speaker and attention on yourself.
How does your body feel at this moment, now this is said? What do you think? Can you let go of distracting thoughts? After having emptied your mind, return to the speaker with your attention.
Practising this method entails that you first learn to listen to yourself. It is important to discern between the own needs and interests and those of the other. If you are not able to do this, you cannot deeply listen to another. You are in the way. Deep Listening is listening without feeling the urge to advise or rescue someone. It is not filling in the silence gaps that may fall. If you do not project expectations onto the speaker, and you do not judge in any way, you are creating a safe space in which the speaker can explore openly what is present. This process of discovering oneself in the presence of someone else can be experienced as liberating.
A small, but possibly transformative, exercise:
Agree with the speaker that you will listen to them for 10 minutes. All you are going to do is listen. You don’t give any comments nor advice.
As a listener, you just let the words come in and you feel what this does to you.
After 10 minutes, thank the person who spoke. This may feel a little awkward at first, but if you practise this with the same person more than once, it will be extremely valuable to both of you.
If you also feel the need to listen intently, switch roles and talk for 10 minutes while the other person listens.
After this exercise, feel what this exercise has done for you, as a speaker or listener or both.
DEEP LISTENING 3. GRASSROOTS TO GLOBAL
That our world and the Earth are in bad shape is, as suggested in the beginning of this essay, old news. How, then, to fundamentally change the direction of more crises and catastrophes we are headed towards? And how to do that collectively?
Recently, numerous initiatives exploring how to return power to the citizen and to rethink and renew current democratic principles have sprung up in various contexts and at different levels of power. These initiatives are not seldomly situated in the art or cultural field. Think, for instance, of the New World Summit, initiated by visual artist Jonas Staal, which is an artistic and political organisation that develops parliaments with and for stateless states, autonomist groups, and blacklisted political organisations. Or Netwerk Democratie, a platform for democratic innovation co-founded by Josien Pieterse, co-director of Framer Framed, a platform for art and culture based in Amsterdam. Netwerk Democratie provided in collaboration with Pakhuis de Zwijger a publication series based on a long-term public programme focusing on the transitions towards a new democracy based on commons, digital democracy, deliberation and other forms,
Although there are many initiatives worthwhile elaborating on, I would like to highlight one that explicitly applies Deep Listening (or as they call it, Engaged Listening) in its way of working towards system change.
Grass Roots to Global (G2G), which originated in Scotland but embraces international collaboration, aims at ‘re-democratising democracy’ and ‘reclaiming our world’ by ‘collectively creating decision making processes that are compelling, fair, transparent, morally legitimate, emotionally intelligent, decolonized and culturally diverse.’
As Eva Schonveld and Justin Kenrick, two of the founders of G2G, explain:
‘We need to find new ways to gather, to make decisions, to organize, and to take responsibility for each other, so that we can respect and nourish all life, since those tasked with this responsibility have so disastrously and inevitably failed, since the dominant system’s purpose is not to respect and nourish but to control, co-opt and exploit.
We also need to re-imagine how we rediscover, create and maintain the enduring or emergent alternatives. Too often they unintentionally include (or fail to challenge) assumptions based on our dominant lived experience of (mostly) patriarchal, racist, hierarchical cultures. The growing understanding of personal and cultural trauma—its ubiquity, its unconscious nature, its debilitating effects, and, most crucially, our ability to learn and heal from it, provide radical possibilities for uncovering and shifting those unconscious (traumatized) assumptions and for (re)discovering genuinely fresh and emancipatory ways of being and working together.’
The stress on de-traumatisation is not a coincidental one. G2G believes that when acting and reacting from trauma, it is impossible to empathise, nor is it possible to make clear decisions. Furthermore, G2G also points out that ‘when we reach positions of power in our dominant systems we come to embody (actively or reactively) the sense of having to be something other than who we are, having to marginalise our lived experience to fit with its demands.’
In the process of collectively re-democratising, listening deeply to oneself and to the other is key. Specifically, the approach, which we are all invited to use and share, consists of four stages of listening, meeting, proposing and making decisions. The first stage focuses on listening in one-on-one interviews. In the other stages, which are (or will be) situated in various forms of assemblies, listening is considered to be central as well.
In the first stage, listening is used to connect, restore trust and to gather a shared understanding on how the system works and impacts people’s lives and views. The G2G toolkit offers three core questions that can structure the interview:
WHAT do you see as the biggest challenges facing the world?
And how do they affect you and yours?
WHY is this problem happening?
Who benefits from it, and is anything being done about it?
If we were serious about tackling this problem, HOW would we?
And where would we start?
G2G stresses the importance of listening across differences with respect to building up inclusive and collective decision-making processes. This means not only initiating contact with people ‘who aren’t like you,’ but also avoiding reactions when you do not agree. Instead, you want to know more about how the system has affected the live of the interviewee, and how this has led them to the current view, especially if you do not agree with this view. The attitude advised by G2G is a practical as well as a very effective one. ‘Giving space to another person, with an attitude of genuine curiosity and an assumption that even if we deeply disagree with what they’re saying, we are able to really get why they think how they do.’
In order to fully embrace this ‘genuine curiosity,’ it is important to be aware of yourself in the conversation. In the G2G guidelines on listening, the following steps are advised:
BEFORE: What do I need to do for myself to feel ready to put my opinions (or judgements, preconceptions, prejudices etc.) aside while I’m speaking to this person?
DURING: What else do I need to know to fully understand why this person thinks the way they do? It is easy to disagree with opinions. It is, however, impossible to disagree with experiences. Ask about experiences, an example, a story to illustrate a view.
AFTER: How do I see connections between what has been said and other systemic impacts (violence, climate change, inequality etc.)?
I would like to finish this section, as well as this essay, with a quote by Ben Okri, a Nigerian poet, novelist and cultural activist, from whom I borrowed the title of this section.
‘It is easier to be clever than to listen. There’s about 3 layers of listening: there’s ordinary listening; there’s deep listening; and there’s shockingly profound listening. You have to listen to the sound of people’s voices, to what they’re really saying and what they’re not saying. Listening is profound attentiveness.’
Let us shockingly profoundly listen to change the world.
www.nytimes.com/1970/09/13/archives/and-dont-call-them-lady-composers-and-dont-call-them-lady-composers.html
. You have to listen to the sound of people’s voices, to what they’re really saying and what they’re not saying. Listening is profound attentiveness.’ We have collected all these listening methods so you can easily review them or use them in class. Follow this link to the listening methods overview page.
In Deep Listening Practices
Deep Listening is a term used in various contexts. In this section, I will briefly discuss two practices that have developed Deep Listening in their own way and will elaborate on a third practice in which Deep Listening is specifically applied to collectively re-democratise.
DEEP LISTENING 1. PAULINE OLIVEROS
Composer, performer, educator and pioneer in electronic music, Pauline Oliveros, coined the term ‘Deep Listening’ to describe a practice of profound attention to the sonic environment. The sonic environment consists of the sounds one can hear outside, as well as the ‘sounds’ within. The practice combines sound and kinetic bodily and meditative exercises.
‘How many sounds can you hear all at once?’
‘Take a walk at night. Walk so silently that the bottoms of your feet become ears.’
Deep Listening exercises originated in the time of the women liberation movement. Oliveros decided to initiate the Sonic Meditation Group for women only. They called themselves the ♀Ensemble because of the fact that ‘women were held down, musically, so long.’
‘Deep Listening is listening in every possible way to everything possible to hear no matter what you are doing. Such intense listening includes the sounds of daily life, of nature, of one’s own thoughts as well as musical sounds. Deep Listening represents a heightened state of awareness and connects to all that there is.’
Practising this kind of attention, opens up a world of possibilities and layers of existence. It is ‘exploring the relationships among any and all sounds whether natural or technological, intended or unintended, real, remembered or imaginary.’
Furthermore, listening as a kind of meditative practice was not isolated from action nor from activism. On the contrary. From within this listening, one could take action. After all, ‘Deep Listening takes us below the surface of our consciousness and helps to change or dissolve limiting boundaries.’
Oliveros herself listened in order to speak up. In 1970 she wrote a passionate article in which she not only denounced the subordinate position of female composers, but also called for concrete change.
Subsequently, she introduced herself in the following way in an avant-garde music magazine in 1971:
‘Pauline Oliveros is a two-legged human being, a female, lesbian, musician, composer, among other things which contribute to her identity.’
Well aware of the importance of this coming out, she related listening to speaking up and making public one’s inner experiences. In 1974, she wrote: ‘How many of you out there think you are in the minority? If everyone came out of the closet the world would change overnight.’
Considering healing possible when the utterance of inner experiences is accepted by others, Oliveros pleads for ‘an atmosphere of opening for all to be heard, with the understanding that listening is healing.’
DEEP LISTENING 2. ROSAMUND OLIVER
Deep Listening is also used to refer to a technique developed by psychotherapist Rosamund Oliver in 2003, which is based on humanistic psychology and the Buddhist tradition of mindfulness and compassion. In this technique (in full, Awareness Centred Deep Listening), awareness is central. You are attuned to yourself as well as to the speaker.
Three specific aspects are of importance using the technique of Deep Listening.
Embodied awareness. When listening, listen as a body/with your body. Your body is the sounding board of what is being communicated.
Ask yourself, what do you feel now, at this moment?
Supportive presence. When emptying the mind, you create a space in which you are entirely present and can support the other.
What is present in your mental space? What influences what you are hearing?
Compassionate connection. As the listener, you intend that your listening contributes to the process of the other. Take a moment in the time before the session starts to connect with that intention and feel this through and through. During the session, you go back and forth between attention on the speaker and attention on yourself.
How does your body feel at this moment, now this is said? What do you think? Can you let go of distracting thoughts? After having emptied your mind, return to the speaker with your attention.
Practising this method entails that you first learn to listen to yourself. It is important to discern between the own needs and interests and those of the other. If you are not able to do this, you cannot deeply listen to another. You are in the way. Deep Listening is listening without feeling the urge to advise or rescue someone. It is not filling in the silence gaps that may fall. If you do not project expectations onto the speaker, and you do not judge in any way, you are creating a safe space in which the speaker can explore openly what is present. This process of discovering oneself in the presence of someone else can be experienced as liberating.
A small, but possibly transformative, exercise:
Agree with the speaker that you will listen to them for 10 minutes. All you are going to do is listen. You don’t give any comments nor advice.
As a listener, you just let the words come in and you feel what this does to you.
After 10 minutes, thank the person who spoke. This may feel a little awkward at first, but if you practise this with the same person more than once, it will be extremely valuable to both of you.
If you also feel the need to listen intently, switch roles and talk for 10 minutes while the other person listens.
After this exercise, feel what this exercise has done for you, as a speaker or listener or both.
DEEP LISTENING 3. GRASSROOTS TO GLOBAL
That our world and the Earth are in bad shape is, as suggested in the beginning of this essay, old news. How, then, to fundamentally change the direction of more crises and catastrophes we are headed towards? And how to do that collectively?
Recently, numerous initiatives exploring how to return power to the citizen and to rethink and renew current democratic principles have sprung up in various contexts and at different levels of power. These initiatives are not seldomly situated in the art or cultural field. Think, for instance, of the New World Summit, initiated by visual artist Jonas Staal, which is an artistic and political organisation that develops parliaments with and for stateless states, autonomist groups, and blacklisted political organisations. Or Netwerk Democratie, a platform for democratic innovation co-founded by Josien Pieterse, co-director of Framer Framed, a platform for art and culture based in Amsterdam. Netwerk Democratie provided in collaboration with Pakhuis de Zwijger a publication series based on a long-term public programme focusing on the transitions towards a new democracy based on commons, digital democracy, deliberation and other forms,
Although there are many initiatives worthwhile elaborating on, I would like to highlight one that explicitly applies Deep Listening (or as they call it, Engaged Listening) in its way of working towards system change.
Grass Roots to Global (G2G), which originated in Scotland but embraces international collaboration, aims at ‘re-democratising democracy’ and ‘reclaiming our world’ by ‘collectively creating decision making processes that are compelling, fair, transparent, morally legitimate, emotionally intelligent, decolonized and culturally diverse.’
As Eva Schonveld and Justin Kenrick, two of the founders of G2G, explain:
‘We need to find new ways to gather, to make decisions, to organize, and to take responsibility for each other, so that we can respect and nourish all life, since those tasked with this responsibility have so disastrously and inevitably failed, since the dominant system’s purpose is not to respect and nourish but to control, co-opt and exploit.
We also need to re-imagine how we rediscover, create and maintain the enduring or emergent alternatives. Too often they unintentionally include (or fail to challenge) assumptions based on our dominant lived experience of (mostly) patriarchal, racist, hierarchical cultures. The growing understanding of personal and cultural trauma—its ubiquity, its unconscious nature, its debilitating effects, and, most crucially, our ability to learn and heal from it, provide radical possibilities for uncovering and shifting those unconscious (traumatized) assumptions and for (re)discovering genuinely fresh and emancipatory ways of being and working together.’
The stress on de-traumatisation is not a coincidental one. G2G believes that when acting and reacting from trauma, it is impossible to empathise, nor is it possible to make clear decisions. Furthermore, G2G also points out that ‘when we reach positions of power in our dominant systems we come to embody (actively or reactively) the sense of having to be something other than who we are, having to marginalise our lived experience to fit with its demands.’
In the process of collectively re-democratising, listening deeply to oneself and to the other is key. Specifically, the approach, which we are all invited to use and share, consists of four stages of listening, meeting, proposing and making decisions. The first stage focuses on listening in one-on-one interviews. In the other stages, which are (or will be) situated in various forms of assemblies, listening is considered to be central as well.
In the first stage, listening is used to connect, restore trust and to gather a shared understanding on how the system works and impacts people’s lives and views. The G2G toolkit offers three core questions that can structure the interview:
WHAT do you see as the biggest challenges facing the world?
And how do they affect you and yours?
WHY is this problem happening?
Who benefits from it, and is anything being done about it?
If we were serious about tackling this problem, HOW would we?
And where would we start?
G2G stresses the importance of listening across differences with respect to building up inclusive and collective decision-making processes. This means not only initiating contact with people ‘who aren’t like you,’ but also avoiding reactions when you do not agree. Instead, you want to know more about how the system has affected the live of the interviewee, and how this has led them to the current view, especially if you do not agree with this view. The attitude advised by G2G is a practical as well as a very effective one. ‘Giving space to another person, with an attitude of genuine curiosity and an assumption that even if we deeply disagree with what they’re saying, we are able to really get why they think how they do.’
In order to fully embrace this ‘genuine curiosity,’ it is important to be aware of yourself in the conversation. In the G2G guidelines on listening, the following steps are advised:
BEFORE: What do I need to do for myself to feel ready to put my opinions (or judgements, preconceptions, prejudices etc.) aside while I’m speaking to this person?
DURING: What else do I need to know to fully understand why this person thinks the way they do? It is easy to disagree with opinions. It is, however, impossible to disagree with experiences. Ask about experiences, an example, a story to illustrate a view.
AFTER: How do I see connections between what has been said and other systemic impacts (violence, climate change, inequality etc.)?
I would like to finish this section, as well as this essay, with a quote by Ben Okri, a Nigerian poet, novelist and cultural activist, from whom I borrowed the title of this section.
‘It is easier to be clever than to listen. There’s about 3 layers of listening: there’s ordinary listening; there’s deep listening; and there’s shockingly profound listening. You have to listen to the sound of people’s voices, to what they’re really saying and what they’re not saying. Listening is profound attentiveness.’
Let us shockingly profoundly listen to change the world.
Kerry O’Brien, ‘Listening as Activism: The “Sonic Meditations” of Pauline Oliveros,’ The New Yorker, December 9, 2016, www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/listening-as-activism-the-sonic-meditations-of-pauline-oliveros.
Oliveros, quoted in Joep Christenhusz and Sharon Stewart, ‘#1b Deep Listening®: Pauline Oliveros and the Sonosphere, Sounding Places / Listening Places #1b,’ May 2021, ArtEZ studium generale, /nl/studies/podcast/1b+deep+listeningr+pauline+oliveros+and+the+sonosphere/. This is part of a very interesting podcast series on Deep Listening, including elaborate lists of source material, which was produced by ArtEZ studium generale.
Pauline Oliveros on Deep Listening on website of The Center for Deep Listening:
www.deeplistening.rpi.edu/deep-listening/ Pauline Oliveros, ‘Quantum Listening: From Practice to Theory (To Practice Practice).’ SoundArtArchive, December 1999
s3.amazonaws.com/arena-attachments/736945/19af465bc3fcf3c8d5249713cd586b28.pdf Pauline Oliveros, ‘And Don't Call Them “Lady” Composers,’ The New York Times, September 13, 1970,
www.nytimes.com/1970/09/13/archives/and-dont-call-them-lady-composers-and-dont-call-them-lady-composers.html
O’Brien 2016.
ACDLT, Awareness Centred Deep Listening training, founded by Rosamund Oliver.
Mike Janssens, ‘Mindful luisteren,’ January 14, 2019, www.bodymymind.com/mindful-luisteren/
Jonas Staal, New World Summit, January 29-31, 2016, Utrecht University, the Netherlands. Commissioned by BAK, basis voor actuele kunst, Utrecht.
www.jonasstaal.nl/projects/new-world-summit-utrecht Netwerk Democratie, Pakhius De Zwijger, ‘New Democracy,’ 2020, netdem.nl/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/4-jaar-New-Democracy.pdf
Grassroots to Global (G2G) website is
www.grassroots2global.org/ Eva Schonveld and Justin Kenrick, ‘Ending Systems of Domination: Reclaiming Our Bodies and Politics from Global Trauma, Radical Ecological Democracy,’ October 26, 2012.
www.resilience.org/stories/2021-10-26/ending-systems-of-domination-reclaiming-our-bodies-and-politics-from-global-trauma/ G2G project overview. See:
docs.google.com/document/d/1TSLLBYUXIjrf2BIjzmniFmp_ZINAYjZ9W0E-MCflk9A/edit Toolkit:
docs.google.com/document/d/1Iy-pl9Y0PrOuGhq18bb35Yc315HgxKM_UJF2j8JQZSg/edit#bookmark=id.wtyi7kuy9ztiLet us shockingly profoundly listen to change the world.
Kerry O’Brien, ‘Listening as Activism: The “Sonic Meditations” of Pauline Oliveros,’ The New Yorker, December 9, 2016, www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/listening-as-activism-the-sonic-meditations-of-pauline-oliveros.
Oliveros, quoted in Joep Christenhusz and Sharon Stewart, ‘#1b Deep Listening®: Pauline Oliveros and the Sonosphere, Sounding Places / Listening Places #1b,’ May 2021, ArtEZ studium generale, /nl/studies/podcast/1b+deep+listeningr+pauline+oliveros+and+the+sonosphere/. This is part of a very interesting podcast series on Deep Listening, including elaborate lists of source material, which was produced by ArtEZ studium generale.
Pauline Oliveros on Deep Listening on website of The Center for Deep Listening:
www.deeplistening.rpi.edu/deep-listening/ Pauline Oliveros, ‘Quantum Listening: From Practice to Theory (To Practice Practice).’ SoundArtArchive, December 1999
s3.amazonaws.com/arena-attachments/736945/19af465bc3fcf3c8d5249713cd586b28.pdf Pauline Oliveros, ‘And Don't Call Them “Lady” Composers,’ The New York Times, September 13, 1970,
www.nytimes.com/1970/09/13/archives/and-dont-call-them-lady-composers-and-dont-call-them-lady-composers.html
O’Brien 2016.
ACDLT, Awareness Centred Deep Listening training, founded by Rosamund Oliver.
Mike Janssens, ‘Mindful luisteren,’ January 14, 2019, www.bodymymind.com/mindful-luisteren/
Jonas Staal, New World Summit, January 29-31, 2016, Utrecht University, the Netherlands. Commissioned by BAK, basis voor actuele kunst, Utrecht.
www.jonasstaal.nl/projects/new-world-summit-utrecht Netwerk Democratie, Pakhius De Zwijger, ‘New Democracy,’ 2020, netdem.nl/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/4-jaar-New-Democracy.pdf
Grassroots to Global (G2G) website is
www.grassroots2global.org/ Eva Schonveld and Justin Kenrick, ‘Ending Systems of Domination: Reclaiming Our Bodies and Politics from Global Trauma, Radical Ecological Democracy,’ October 26, 2012.
www.resilience.org/stories/2021-10-26/ending-systems-of-domination-reclaiming-our-bodies-and-politics-from-global-trauma/ G2G project overview. See:
docs.google.com/document/d/1TSLLBYUXIjrf2BIjzmniFmp_ZINAYjZ9W0E-MCflk9A/edit Toolkit:
docs.google.com/document/d/1Iy-pl9Y0PrOuGhq18bb35Yc315HgxKM_UJF2j8JQZSg/edit#bookmark=id.wtyi7kuy9ztiNot a loud revolution, but a quiet one. Not a violent revolution, but still, a radical one. A revolution of listening, of care, of being-in-relation. Of making space, and time, for a diversity of voices. Delinking ourselves from modernist, colonial and neoliberal misconceptions and abuses.
*
Delinking in this respect is coined by Walter Mignolo. See: Walter Mingolo, ‘Delinking: The Rhetoric of Modernity, the Logic of Coloniality and the Grammar of De-coloniality,’ Cultural Studies 21 (2007): p. 449-514, doi.org/10.1080/09502380601162647.
Coming to relational and/or collective knowledge is something we in Western society are not used to, nor inclined to. After all, one has to find one’s ‘own’ and ‘unique’ voice. We are individually assessed, be it as a student, teacher, employee, or artist. We are all authors of our own individually constructed lives.
This approach is even more obvious in the art world. Individuality, autonomy, authenticity, originality are rampant parts of the still dominant modernist framework.
What would art and art education be like if these values lose their ‘ignorant arrogance’ and we open the door more and more for other values, such as relationality, collectivity, sharing, caring, equal participation,
and truly listening?
What spaces of possibilities would open up?
How would it influence our artistic narrative or identity?
This approach is even more obvious in the art world. Individuality, autonomy, authenticity, originality are rampant parts of the still dominant modernist framework.
What would art and art education be like if these values lose their ‘ignorant arrogance’ and we open the door more and more for other values, such as relationality, collectivity, sharing, caring, equal participation,
and truly listening?
What spaces of possibilities would open up?
How would it influence our artistic narrative or identity?
Could listening instigate the radical change that we are longing for?
How then could we (re-)value the listener?
How then could we (re-)value the listener?
And perhaps now the time has come.
The time to turn the tables,
following up on Hamja Ahsan’s example.
Ahsan, artist and writer of the satirical manifesto Shy Radicals, Anti-systemic Politics of the Militant Introvert, calls for introverted people to unite and to overturn extrovert-supremacy.
Perhaps we, ourselves, attempting to learn to truly listen and striving for a ‘softer’ approach within (art) education and the (art) world could start with letting go of the term ‘soft’ often being equated with ‘weak.’
When asked why he was so sheepish, Ahsan would ask the questioner, ‘Why are you being such an Extrovert-Supremacist?’ This way, Ahsan was setting the terms while cutting himself loose from the imposed power structure within that situation.
The time to turn the tables,
following up on Hamja Ahsan’s example.
Ahsan, artist and writer of the satirical manifesto Shy Radicals, Anti-systemic Politics of the Militant Introvert, calls for introverted people to unite and to overturn extrovert-supremacy.
*
Hamja Ahsan, Shy Radicals, The Anti-systemic Politics of the Militant Introvert (London: Book Works, 2017). Also interesting to listen to is Hamja Ashan reading Shy Radicals. ArtEZ studium generale, October 21, 2019, apria.artez.nl/shy-radicals-by-hamja-ahsan-reading-and-interview/.
*
Meg Miller, ‘Quiet World Order. Shy Radicals by Hamja Ahsan proposes equality for introverts and proves that activism needn’t be noisy,’ Eye on Design #06: Utopias (2020): pp. 96-100, p. 98, megmiller.world/media/pages/works/why-radicals/1435699350-1578670225/shy-radicals.pdf
Perhaps we, ourselves, attempting to learn to truly listen and striving for a ‘softer’ approach within (art) education and the (art) world could start with letting go of the term ‘soft’ often being equated with ‘weak.’
When asked why he was so sheepish, Ahsan would ask the questioner, ‘Why are you being such an Extrovert-Supremacist?’ This way, Ahsan was setting the terms while cutting himself loose from the imposed power structure within that situation.
What if we were to interchange the term ‘soft’ with
or even
‘STRONG’
‘VITAL’
‘ESSENTIAL’
‘VITAL’
‘ESSENTIAL’
or even
‘RADICAL’.
And immediately I feel my back straighten a bit.
I notice that I hold my head just a little higher.
And I take a deep breath.
I notice that I hold my head just a little higher.
And I take a deep breath.
Online Course
Want to delve further into the topic of this essay? Then take a look at the corresponding lesson that is part of anOnline Course
that consists of 10 lessons based on the 10 essays in this publication. These lessons focus on the central concepts that are treated in the essays and are followed by various questions, assignments and/or work formats.Want to delve further into the topic of this essay? Then take a look at the corresponding lesson that is part of an online course that consists of 10 lessons based on the 10 essays in this publication. These lessons focus on the central concepts that are treated in the essays and are followed by various questions, assignments and/or work formats.
The entire online course, including an extensive introduction, can be found via the button below. If you want to go directly to the assignments for this essay, click here.
The entire
Online Course
, including an extensive introduction, can be found via the button below. If you want to go directly to the assignments for this essay, click here.Want to delve further into the topic of this essay? Then take a look at the corresponding lesson that is part of an online course that consists of 10 lessons based on the 10 essays in this publication. These lessons focus on the central concepts that are treated in the essays and are followed by various questions, assignments and/or work formats.
The entire online course, including an extensive introduction, can be found via the button below. If you want to go directly to the assignments for this essay, click here.