Embodied Listening: Exceeding the Restrictions of Visual Perception

In an effort to move beyond representational modes of seeing and knowing, in this paper I explore how movement activates listening, and so expands the act of seeing through a process of embodiment and practice. Drawing on fieldwork undertaken for the production of the moving image work 'Between Two Suns', the aim of this paper is to articulate an idea of expanded forms of production that generate performative collaborations and improvisations beyond the camera frame. Through examining the methodological processes undertaken during fieldwork, this paper considers listening as a sensory experience of place that requires movement as a way to relate to other bodies. It contends that through the affective properties of sonic communication, we are able to engage in the world with a perspective that exceeds the restrictions of visual perception; demonstrating how sound draws attention to the entanglements of human and more-than-human forms of life through both movement and gesture. Listening is a form of sonic cognition and it produces a mode of knowledge that is both temporal and ephemeral, through a sensory reading with the world (Voegelin 2014). In this paper, I consider the influence of listening on looking as an embodied experience that requires creative gestures of movement as a way to make contact with otherwise unseen actions and ecologies within environments. By recounting the experiences of practice and process, I will illustrate how listening and performative movement open up a field of possibilities by destabilising the role of the observer through a connection to a larger world. Voegelin, S 2014, Listening to silence and noise: towards a philosophy of sound art , Bloomsbury, London

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Author and article information

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Polly Stanton

Conference

Publication date: August 2019

Publication date (Print): August 2019

Pages: 76-82

Affiliations

[0001]Masters of Media

School of Media and Communication

RMIT University

125 Latrobe Street

Melbourne, 3000

Australia

Article

DOI: 10.14236/ewic/RESOUND19.12

SO-VID: 674596b7-b515-4e71-986f-278eff401d2a

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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Unported License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Conference name: RE:SOUND 2019 – 8th International Conference on Media Art, Science, and Technology

Conference acronym: RE:SOUND 2019

Conference number: 8

Conference location: Aalborg, Denmark

Conference date: August 20-23, 2019

Conference sponsor: Electronic Workshops in Computing (eWiC)

Conference theme: Media Art, Science, and Technology

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1477-9358 BCS Learning & Development

Self URI (article page): https://www.scienceopen.com/hosted-document?doi=10.14236/ewic/RESOUND19.12

Self URI (journal page): https://ewic.bcs.org/

REFERENCES

K BenediktssonAK Lund 2010 Conversations with landscape Ashgate Farnham, Surrey
L FarinatiC Firth 2017 The force of listening Errant Bodies Press Berlin
M GallagherA KanngieserJ Prior 2017 Listening to geographies: landscape, affect and geotechnologies Progress in Human Geography 41 5 618 637
T Ingold 1993 The temporality of landscape World Archaeology 25 2 152 174
T Ingold 2000 The perception of the environment: essays on livelihood, dwelling and skill Routledge London
T Ingold 2001 From the transmission of representations to the education of attention H. Whitehouse The debated mind: evolutionary psychology versus ethnography Berg Oxford 113 153
T Ingold 2010 Footprints through the weatherworld: walking, breathing, knowing Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute 16 121 139
T Ingold 2011 Being alive: essays on movement, knowledge and description Routledge New York
M JanowskiT Ingold 2012 Imagining landscapes: past, present and future Ashgate Surrey
E Manning 2009 Relationscapes: movement, art, philosophy MIT Press Cambridge
E Manning 2013 Always more than one: individuation’s dance Duke University Press Durham
E Manning 2014 Wondering the world directly - or, how movement outruns the subject Body and Society 20 3-4 162 188
E Manning 2016 The minor gesture Duke University Press Durham
R Solnit 2006 A field guide to getting lost Penguin Books London
S Pink 2007 Walking with video Visual Studies 22 3 240 252
S Pink 2015 Doing sensory ethnography 2 Sage London
J VergunstT Ingold 2008 Ways of walking: ethnography and practice on foot Routledge London
S Voegelin 2014 Listening to silence and noise: towards a philosophy of sound art Bloomsbury London
K Berrens 2016 An emotional cartography of resonance Emotion, Space and Society 20 75 81

Comments

Comment on this article

[1] K BenediktssonAK Lund 2010 Conversations with landscape Ashgate Farnham, Surrey

[2] L FarinatiC Firth 2017 The force of listening Errant Bodies Press Berlin

[3] M GallagherA KanngieserJ Prior 2017 Listening to geographies: landscape, affect and geotechnologies Progress in Human Geography 41 5 618 637

[4] T Ingold 1993 The temporality of landscape World Archaeology 25 2 152 174

[5] T Ingold 2000 The perception of the environment: essays on livelihood, dwelling and skill Routledge London

[6] T Ingold 2001 From the transmission of representations to the education of attention H. Whitehouse The debated mind: evolutionary psychology versus ethnography Berg Oxford 113 153

[7] T Ingold 2010 Footprints through the weatherworld: walking, breathing, knowing Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute 16 121 139

[8] T Ingold 2011 Being alive: essays on movement, knowledge and description Routledge New York

[9] M JanowskiT Ingold 2012 Imagining landscapes: past, present and future Ashgate Surrey

[10] E Manning 2009 Relationscapes: movement, art, philosophy MIT Press Cambridge

[11] E Manning 2013 Always more than one: individuation’s dance Duke University Press Durham

[12] E Manning 2014 Wondering the world directly - or, how movement outruns the subject Body and Society 20 3-4 162 188

[13] E Manning 2016 The minor gesture Duke University Press Durham

[14] R Solnit 2006 A field guide to getting lost Penguin Books London

[15] S Pink 2007 Walking with video Visual Studies 22 3 240 252

[16] S Pink 2015 Doing sensory ethnography 2 Sage London

[17] J VergunstT Ingold 2008 Ways of walking: ethnography and practice on foot Routledge London

[18] S Voegelin 2014 Listening to silence and noise: towards a philosophy of sound art Bloomsbury London

[19] K Berrens 2016 An emotional cartography of resonance Emotion, Space and Society 20 75 81

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