What is the sound of the conflict we cannot hear?

Elliot Perkins, a member of the sound art collective Ultra-red invites festival's participants to consider the question What is the sound of the conflict we cannot hear? - an investigation that began with students of Space & Design Strategies at the Kunstuniversität, calling us
to consider and deepen our analysis of hidden conflict, contested spaces and the problem of agreement and democratic consensus. Using experimental listening protocols proposed by Ultra-red as an approach to research and artistic practice, we will attempt to delve into the social, historical, and or political contexts embedded in the urban fabric and excavate muted antagonisms which can escape everyday perception.

We will interrogate how war and conflict and their normalisation structure life in the city in ways that require silent, intentional listening. Tracing our relationships to, and investments in places where struggle and conflict are manifest we will listen from and through these intentions. What do we hear? How do we hear in common?  How to listen to what has been under-heard? Are antagonisms a problem or can we hear in them something which suggests a deeper pedagogy of listening, together, in difference, in solidarity, in curiosity?

Participants are invited to propose locations for collective listening in and around the city of Linz in response to the investigation question.

The workshop is realized in a cooperation with space&designSTRATEGIES – University of Art Linz.

Workshop meeting point: afo – architekturforum oberösterreich, Herbert-Bayer-Platz 1, A-4020 Linz, ground floor.

img © Martin Bruner