In the fall of 2024 and spring of 2025, BGML partnered with Canadian Association for Sound Ecology and The Only Animal to investigate how listening, sound-making and land-based material art practices can help foster care for more-than-human lifeworlds. The project explored sound walks, sound improvisation workshops, readings, discussions, natural dye workshops and botanical printmaking, led by IBPoC artists.
Events took place on both the east and west coast of Canada (Turtle Island). The project cultivated attentive, collaborative, and decolonial practices across diverse events. Participating artists/facilitators included Rita Kompst (xʷməθkʷəy̓əm [Musqueam]), Toni-Leah C. Yake (Kanyen’kehà:ka [Mohawk]), Anju Singh, Liz Ellis, Adrian Avendaño, Lara Felsing (Métis), Audiotopie and the Branching Songs Ensemble among many other community members whose experiences, presentations, and discussions generated reflective and thoughtful approaches to decolonial land-based practice. The project culminated with an Equinox Roundtable gathering at ECU campus in March 2025. It brought together the researchers to share and discuss the thematic outcomes (see below)
The Listening in Relation Final Report documents all the events and includes details on the research, thematic outcomes, and forward-looking questions.
The THEMATIC OUTCOMES from the Listening in Relation project are:
Decolonial Relations & Kinship: The practices of decolonization and kinship were expanded through readings, presentations, conversations, and workshops across events.
Protocols of Field Recording: A Slow Social Club workshop by Anju Singh directly addressed ethical considerations while field recording; relatedly, Rita and Zoe Kompst led a workshop on Musqueam harvesting protocols, a method that could be applied to ‘sonic’ harvesting techniques.
Land-Based Methods & Material Practices: Decolonial relations and heightened kinship are deeply connected to sustainable applications of land-based methods and materials. The Keynote Panel held during the Equinox Roundtable offered grounded examples of decolonizing practice, as each keynote spoke to their individual and communal relationships with reciprocal, land-based, and cultural harvesting practices.
Soundwalking, Soundscape Design, and Sound Art: The project featured a number of soundwalks, soundscape compositions, and sound art workshops which prompted collective reflections on listening and composition. During the Equinox Roundtable, a collection of soundscapes were also available for concurrent listening in a ‘soundscape listening room’.
For an expanded review on themes and further reflections, see the individual event descriptions in the LiR Final Report. Thematic trends and questions for future research are also listed throughout the report.
For more information contact: Julie Andreyev, jandreyev @ ecuad.ca
______________
Listening in Relation is supported by:
2024 ECU-RIO NSERC Mobilize grant,
Canadian Association for Sound Ecology,
The Only Animal,
Basically Good Media Lab, ECU,
University of Laval