• Thu 21 10 2021 •
Learning to Listen #3

Olivier Marboeuf is an artist, poet, curator, and producer, whose recent work with audio and soundscapes is centered around the “politics of frequency.” Marboeuf, whose biography and research interests are largely connected with the Caribbean, confronts us with what he calls the “dimensions of sonic resistance” of the communities of the African diaspora. For our understanding of this dimension of sonic resistance, listening and un-listening are just as pivotal as speaking and de-speaking. In his audio essay he will examine the act of speech as well as collective speaking and listening – essentially, the possibility and impossibility of speaking and listening.

Politics of Frequencies is the first step of an artistic research around Creole conversation as a cacophonic listening space that translates the paradoxical situation of a need to speak while protecting one's word, to speak in ‘de-speaking’. And thus, to produce a sense in a collective gesture of repetition, accumulation and saturation. A sense that calls for presence and remains inaccessible and opaque for those who want to stay away. A sense that requires both the ear and the mouth to travel in the entanglement of the voices and the hospitality of the frequencies.

Learning to Listen is a podcast format that explores different forms of listening – both listening and not listening – and the knowledge that can be drawn from them. The focus is on learning and unlearning to listen and engaging with internalized mindsets. The main aim of Learning to Listen is to initiate didactic processes intended to help us understand why certain sounds, songs, and narratives are heard and others are not, and to interweave auditory events with anti/decolonial education. The individual episodes are conceived as heterogeneous audio essays; the invited guests have free rein over their concept and realization.

Language: English | French | Haitian Creole
Available at Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud and Spotify

Recorded between August and September 2021 in Port-au-Prince (Haïti) and Saint-Denis (France).

Concept: OLIVIER MARBOEUF
Texts and Lectures: ROSSI JACQUES CASIMIR, OLIVIER MARBOEUF
With Voices of: SHELO FRANCOIS (PLEB MIZIK), STEEVE PIERRE LOUIS, DARENS JABOUIN, JEFF RON, ALAN SANDARSEN (JUSTICE), DAVID AND JAMES PETER ÉTIENNE (MIMETIK NEG)
Translation: LIZ YOUNG
Sound: VICTOR DONATI
Production and Audio Design Learning to Listen: KENO MESCHER