How can we unlearn the limitation of our listening habit to Western music and open our ears? This workshop is an introduction to untraining the ear, with methods based on the practices of deep listening (Pauline Oliveros) and decolonial listening (Rolando Vázques). To listen, understood as relational towards oneself and to others, is to disengage with prescribed ‘rationalities’ of the Western world, which includes the way we engage with sounds and musics. It is also about allowing the time for the process of (un)learning. By offering a supportive space for self-reflection and dialogue on how to deeper understand our own listening practices, this workshop is designed to offer an initial toolkit for untraining our ears.

Hanna Grześkiewicz is a Berlin-based researcher, writer and curator, whose work focuses on the politics of sound.