Learning to Listen / Listening to Learn
My project explores the role that listening plays within different learning spaces and pedagogical approaches – from mainstream schooling to community arts workshops, from indigenous democratic practices to radical youth liberation projects. It aims to open up a space for reflection and dialogue around questions such as ‘How can we learn to better listen to ourselves, each other and the world?’, ‘What if adults learnt to listen to young people?’, and ‘How can artist educators develop approaches towards facilitating this?’. With its soft, floor-based seating in a circular formation, the installation acts as a ‘listening space’ within which audiences are invited to practise their listening by spending time with an audio piece – a collaged collection of sound recordings taken from creative workshops and conversations that I’ve run with young people around the practice of listening – and a live collective conversation and creative workshop during the MA show.