Seminar: Let’s Talk Listening

Listen in and contribute to our 20th anniversary seminar on the performance of listening in democratic processes.

For 20 years now, Imagine IC has been working towards ‘heritage democracy’. Since objects and collections of heritage tell our joint story, everybody should have a say in them. The continuous negotiation process of heritage-making thus involves divergent, even contrasting voices. But next to the voicing of multiple opinions and positions on objects of heritage, the performance of listening seems underexposed.

The programme contributes to a methodology of emotion networking. This notion is developed by Imagine IC and Reinwardt Academy (Amsterdam University of the Arts) since 2014. The workshops programme is organized in collaboration with Reinwardt Academy.

During our full-day seminar, we will approach this subject from different angles within, but importantly also outside the heritage sphere. In the morning, keynote speaker Leah Bassel (UK) will talk on the politics of listening and will engage in a conversation with heritage professionals from the Netherlands and beyond:

Keynote Leah Bassel, author of The Politics of Listening, Possibilities and Challenges for Democratic Life, is a Professor of the Department of Social Sciences at the University of Roehampton. Before pursuing an academic career, Leah was an emergency outreach worker in Paris, where she provided humanitarian assistance to asylum seekers and created a circus camp project for refugee youth.

Moderated by Jasmijn Rana is a cultural anthropologist. Her PhD-dissertation focused on daily life of young Muslim women in kickboxing and explores the process of acquiring bodily knowledge and skills as a means of (re-)producing notions of self and senses of belonging. She is an assistant professor at the Institute of Cultural Anthropology and Development Sociology of Leiden University. Jasmijn is the co-author of Moved by the tears of others: emotion networking in the heritage sphere

Column by Wayne Modest, director of the Research centre for Material Culture (RCMC). From the start, the RCMC has been a dynamic place where experts and stakeholders from outside and in the country come together to discuss the meaning and future of colonial, ethnographic and art-historical collections.  

Panelsession on Heritage Democracy with:

Sabrina Kamili, works with L’atelier de l’Observartoire in Casablanca. A space for art and research that develops socially committed participatory projects, in which artists, students, researchers and residents come together.

Milena Mulders, is director of ONfile a network of refugee journalists, writers and other media professionals. Secondly she is the founder & curator of Migration Museum Heerlen, a semi temporary presentation and meeting place to show, share and discuss the past and current events of migration.

After a good lunch, the afternoon will offer a variety of workshops in which you can practice your listening skills.

14:00 Block 1

Home Sounds, Elise ’t Hart

In 2013 sound artist Elise ‘t Hart founded the Institute for Domestic sound (Huisgeluid), a growing collection and documentation of sounds that you encounter at home. By recording the sound and entering into a conversation with the owners / observers / receivers of the sound, 't Hart maps the sound in all its facets and thus makes the invisible visible. "It's about learning to listen, becoming aware and gaining complete experience of our environment."

Conflict resolution, Fleur van Ravensbergen *

Fleur Ravensbergen is vice-director and co-founder of the Dialogue Advisory Group, a Dutch organization that mediates in armed conflict. In her work she conducts interviews with members of armed groups with the aim of stopping the violence. In addition, she is coordinator of the International Verification Commission that ceases the firing of ETA, the Basque separatist group, and teaches at the University of Amsterdam.

How to listen to heavy metal music, Walter Hoeijmakers

It is more than just music, it is also a reflection of a lifestyle and the personality of people and how they look at life. I don't want to look like a hippie too much, but it's almost spiritual. For the untrained ear, heavy metal music might come over as very unwelcoming to the ear. Walter Hoeijmakers co-initiator of the world renowned Roadburn festival and unrivaled authority on Stoner rock and dark psychedelica and metal opens your mind to this unfamiliar sound.

Emotion Networking, Imagine IC & Reinwardt Academy, Margot van Ruitenbeek

Your chance to find out what all this talk about emotions and heritage is all about. Emotion networking refers to the divergent feelings that people have with a heritage item and that can sometimes clash considerably. The purpose of emotion networking is to provide insight into each other's feelings about such an item, to ensure mutual understanding and heritage that contributes to it.

15:15 Block 2

The Social Sorting Experiment: Interactive theater, The Smartphone Orchestra

Did you know that 70 likes is enough to know more about how you behave than your friends do? That 70 likes is enough to know your sexual orientation? And 300 likes to know you better than your own partner does?! Experience how your data is used in unexpected ways in this absurdist, serious and fun interactive performance where you and your smartphone become the main star of the show. You will experience the mysterious algorithmic rituals under the hood of social media and how your likes are being heard.

Listening to urban ambiances, Soundtrackcity

As the sonic world is a constitutive part of being together, the question 'How to create places where we can live together?' can be reframed in 'How should these places sound?'. To answer this question we should first study our listening. How do we listen to each other, to the world or to a specific social situation? In this workshop you'll be introduced to shared listening practises recently developed by Soundtrackcity to assess and ultimately create a new urban public places as a commons.

Soundtrackcity is an artistic research agency founded in 2009 by Renate Zentschnig and Michiel Huijsman that focuses on the social, political and cultural aspects of sonic urban environments. In cooperation with city dwellers and professionals from different fields, Soundtrackcity develops unique projects to test new research methods and jointly put new ways of listening to the urban ambiance into practice.

Emotion Networking, Imagine IC & Reinwardt Academy, Hester Dibbits *

Your chance to find out what all this talk about emotions and heritage is all about. Emotion networking refers to the divergent feelings that people have with a heritage item and that can sometimes clash considerably. The purpose of emotion networking is to provide insight into each other's feelings about such an item, to ensure mutual understanding and heritage that contributes to it.

* English (all workshops without an asterix are in Dutch)

We thank AFK, Gemeente Amsterdam Zuidoost and VSB Fonds for their contribution

Date: 11 November 2019

Time: 9.30 am

Entrance fee: €25 incl. lunch and workshops, tickets now available!

Location: OBA Imagine IC, Bijlmerplein 393, 1102 DK Amsterdam Zuidoost