Ways of knowing – Movements of Listening

The seminar is part of the seminar series “Ways of knowing Spring 2025” where we every Wednesday this Spring explore how Ways of Knowing manifest themselves in the field of artistic research right now. Read more about the seminar series and find upcoming seminars.

Oftentimes, listening is seen as something passive—as opposed to the dominant acts of speaking. Yet, listening shapes relations, what gets included or excluded, and how meanings are made. In research, communication, and politics, listening plays a crucial role, but has rarely been explored as a political act in itself—one that not only responds to voice but actively shapes which voices are heard, as well as how and under which conditions. Listening always involves a sorting—a separation of voice from noise. We can’t listen to everything at once. What and who we are able to listen to is shaped by our positions, bodies, and contexts. 

In this workshop, we will explore listening as practices of attention, care, and power. Through a mix of conversation, writing, and physical exercises, we will focus on practices of listening. On what we filter out, what overflows us and what gets heard from different positions.

Sofia Wiberg and Stina Nyberg have collaborated since 2013. They share an interest in participation, embodied knowledge and embarrassing encounters. Through a site specific approach to every situation they investigate collective learning processes through a focus on the (un)known, felt and heard.
They have explored listening as a political practice within collaborations such as Rehearsals – Eight Acts on the Politics of Listening (2013–14), the symposium Participatory Practices in Art and Architecture (2015), and the AHRA conference Architecture & Feminisms (2016), and through texts such as “Listen Up” and “The Practice of Listening”. From 2020 they have hosted two practice based symposiums on collective learning entitled “A Thinking Practice”.

Participants

Sofia Wiberg is a teacher and researcher at KTH (Royal Institute of Technology) and Konstfack (University of Arts, Crafts and Design). She holds a PhD in Urban Studies and has extensive experience working at the intersection of urban planning and artistic practices. Her research focuses on knowledge formation and how we articulate practical and artistic knowledge, as well as collective work and decision-making processes, asymmetric power relations, and the limits of knowing. She is the manager of the TRANSPLACE research school, which aims to develop and implement radical initiatives for sustainability transformation of urban planning practice. 

Stina Nyberg is a choreographer and dancer with a practice bouncing between sensation, articulation and representation. In her processes she crafts alternate systems of logic in order to construct the world differently, and act accordingly. Often working in collaboration with others she creates a method specific to every situation, including how to work into what to work with.
Stina works both independently and collectively, in temporary collaborations with theatres, institutions and other animals. She is a member of the artist run organisations höjden, Fylkingen and Interim kultur and currently part of the artistic cohort of Rose Choreographic School based at Sadler’s Wells in London.