On Listening

Listening is an active practice. It requires attention, presence, and attunement. It is also a form of intimacy: to listen to is to be an audience or a witness to another––or to many others. From ancient oral transmission traditions to podcasts and audioguides, from casual eavesdropping to careful diagnostics––of a patient for a doctor, of an engine for a mechanic––and from sermons to conflict mediation, listening pervades all aspects of society and often carries cultural, political, and ethical implications. The act of listening is also closely linked to technology. “We are not free to choose the ways we are being heard,” researcher and artist Lawrence Abu Hamdan points out. This Salon considers how and when; whom and what we choose to listen to; and what we hear when we do.

Some of the questions we asked: Is contemporary media culture moving us into a neo-oral age? If so, how is the act of listening evolving? Does privileging hearing over other senses produce new modes of knowledge? What is a sonic register, and what information and affects does it communicate? What are we willingly or unwillingly tuning out even when we seem to be listening carefully? How do we approach the gap between listening and understanding? What is unlistenable? What changes, physiologically and psychologically, when we listen to music individually versus collectively? And recorded versus live? What can we glean from listening to and for the more-than-human? What are the sounds of climate change? And of contemporary warfare? How is listening essential to democracy? Can we be trained to become more generous listeners? How do we distinguish signal from noise?

This Salon took place on October 14, 2026.