Fellows

Listen Up! - Heather Nicol

Heather Nicol ( Canada )

Nicol’s time in Berlin will focus on the exigencies of listening as an integral aspect ofcommunication. Active listening bridges self and other, and makes fluid the divisions betweenthe singular and the plural, the inside and the outside. Attentive listening can be an act ofgauging our surroundings, and in so doing becoming attuned to our own social responses.

She will experiment with the materialization of close-listening encounters through two threads ofinquiry. One is a multichannel sound environment featuring suspended overhead speakers and alistening zone on the floor. The other is an interdisciplinary collaboration with NighswimmingTheatre /Canadian actor and theatre devisor Martin Julien. Called Why We Are Here!, it is a site-specific choral performance, wherein the creators and participants join together in the actions oflistening and making sound. Both threads investigate the nexus of individuated and collectivevoice/identity, as well as the occupation of shared space.