Experiments in Listening
Friday, January 24-Saturday January 25, 2025
University of Southern California and California Institute of the Arts
Supported by the MA Aesthetics and Politics program and the Herb Alpert School of Music at the California Institute of the Arts; the Experimental Humanities Lab at the University of Southern California; and boundary 2: an international journal of literature and culture.
With additional support from the School of Critical Studies at CalArts; and the Division of Cinema and Media Studies, the Department of Comparative Literature, and the Department of English at USC.
Organized by Arne De Boever, Kara Keeling, Erin Graff Zivin, and Michael Pisaro-Liu.
“To anyone in the habit of thinking with their ears…” Thus begins Theodor W. Adorno’s famous essay “Cultural Criticism and Society”. But what does it mean to think with one’s ears? How does one get into the habit of it? And what are the critical and societal (ethical and political) benefits of thinking with one’s ears?
“Experiments in Listening” proposes to address these questions starting from the experimental performing arts. Conceived between an arts institute, a university, and a contrarian international journal of literature and culture, the conference seeks to “emancipate the listener” (to riff on Jacques Rancière) into considering their ears as not only aesthetic but also political instruments that are as central to how we think, make, and live as our speech.
Listeners include: Natalie Belisle, Arne De Boever, Gabrielle Civil, Nina Eidsheim, Leah Feldman, Stathis Gourgouris, Edwin Hill, Michael Ned Holte, Tung-Hui Hu, Jonathan Leal, Fumi Okiji, Michael Pisaro-Liu, Bruce Robbins, Gavin Steingo, and Mlondi Szondi. Also featuring: a performance by Notnef Greco (Deviant Fond and Count G), an experimental music workshop, and a Student Theory Slam.
Detailed program TBA.
