AGGRESSIVE LISTENING

The first project initiated (and still ongoing…) will be conducted in various states and is titled AGGRESSIVE LISTENING.

 

It is inspired by the artistis’ book Handbook of Aggressive Listening, edited by tobias R. Kirstein, Claus Haxholm & Rasmus Holmboe.

They connect ‘aggressive listening’ to ‘auditory staring:

Auditory Staring

 

Aggressive listening corresponds to a form of staring by auditory means. Does this mean that we subliminally sense the intentionality of others listening in the same way that we feel the eyes of another person resting upon us from somewhere outside our visual field? What kind of energy does listening emit towards its object of attention?

(Written by Ulrik Schmidt).

Aggressive listening challenges our ‘normal’ perception of and practice with listening. How to (really) listen aggressively? Isn’t listening something in which we hold back, offer our silence and attention, where we lean into the unknown and unexpected – how can that be aggressive? The aggressive part of may be found in how listening alters, affects, and ‘fights’. The aggressive part is a question of (auditory) territory, and our relationship to territory.

 

The project will consist of, and for, different works, searches, states and more. Variations of attempts, attacks, and refuges.

We consider the act of not (fully) defining or describing further what AGGRESIVE LISTENING is (or can be) as part of the project. We wonder if, the refusal of describing/defining the concept of aggressive listening, the insisting on keeping it open and fluid, is a part of listening aggressively? How may our opponents strike back, when they can’t recognize or control our presence (assault)?