Affective Listening

A two-day immersive experience of giving time and attention

With: Ximena Alarcón (CO/UK) and Thirsty Moon/Ying Le (CN/DE)

12 May 2017, 20h: Ximena Alarcón gives an introduction to her work. 

13 -14 May 2017, two-day workshop with Ximena Alarcón (CO/UK) and Thirsty Moon/Ying Le (CN/DE)

Errant Sound Art Project Space, Kollwitz Strasse 97, 10435 Berlin

You are invited to a two-day immersive experience aiming to explore the relation between the micro and macro dimensions of human agency, and test whether changes in the individual can trigger changes in the collective. It furthermore questions the idea of ‘Selbstverortung’ (positioning of the self), and reflects on how one receives and acts upon the world as an affective being. Can the (social) body be decolonised, de-subjectified and propelled to a new subjectivation through creating heightened awareness and critical consciousness in both the individual and collective bodies? 

“Affective Listening” is a concept and holistic methodology by Berit Fischer that works between action and reflection, in which the cognitive reciprocally intertwines with the non-semiotic, the sensual and experiential. 

Can “affective listening” be a practice for agency? Can we share a code of collectivity?How can an art space be embodied? What kind of knowledge and new codes can affective listening produce? 

The two days will experiment with creating alternative realities through embodied and sensual exercises, along with theoretical readings and dialogue,exploringresonance and “Affective Listening.” 

Day 1 – Deep Listening

with Ximena Alarcón

Deep Listening practice was developed by experimental composer Pauline Oliveros and is a unique approach that strives for a heightened consciousness of the world of sound and the sound of the world: “It cultivates a heightened awareness of the sonic environment, both external and internal, and promotes experimentation, improvisation, collaboration, playfulness and other creative skills vital to personal and community growth”. 

Colombian artist and certified Deep Listening Tutor Ximena Alarcón will engage in Deep Listening, which she describes as “an inclusive and embodied practice of attention to all the possible sonic aspects that can be experienced.” Deep Listening reflects on connections to the Self, to the Others and to the environment, enlarging our sense of belonging and space. Through Deep Listening practice, we will be guided to experience inner and outer listening, to expand our individual and collective awareness, encountering many possible audible forms, beyond ordinary sound perceptions in daily life. It will encompass listening to interstitial spaces like one’s own thoughts, imagination, dreams and listening to listening itself. 

Day 2 – Discursive Teahouse

with Thirsty Moon/Ying Le 

In ancient Chinese culture, the teahouse was often associated as a place for sharing ideas, for literature, arts, and philosophy and a place where social rank and political allegiances were temporarily deferredfor an open conversation. Still today, the teahouse and communal tea consumption is of cultural importance; the tea’s potencies encourage conviviality and open exchange. On the ground of believe that one’s state of mind or attitude can be passed easily to the Others, mutual respect and appreciation for nature is essential to the spirit of a tea ceremony. 

Chinese artist Ying Le and co-founder of Berlin’s tearoom Thirsty Moon will immerse us in the experience of collective tea drinking. She will introduce us to a tea ceremony as a communal place of exchange, in which our senses and consciousness will become amplified. Le will be sharing the experience of complex properties of tea leaves of the purest quality from cultivated ancient wild tea trees in Yunnan, China. Her way of serving tea is informed by the Chinese Gong Fu tea ceremony, based on the notion of dedicating “time and effort.” Having been interested in the relation to nature, the rituals and the social and bodily dimensions surrounding the potential of drinking tea, she states “We would like to see how the deepened social consciousness embedded in tea interacts with our present environment. Drinking tea is a means of participation.” 

In addition, the Discursive Teahousewill encompass holistic methodologies of “affective listening” guided by independent curator and yoga teacher Berit Fischer. They will include exercises of mindfulness, meditations and communal reading of related theoretical writings as a cognitive impulse to reciprocally intertwine with the sensual experiences.

All photos by Berit Fischer

Deep Listening

Discursive Teahouse
Body Locomotion exercise re-interpreted
Discursive Teahouse
Notes from Body Locomotion exercise re-interpreted
Collective Earth Meditation