Listening: A Research Method in Art & Design

The Royal Academy of Art (KABK) The Hague Design Lectorate is pleased to announce the latest title in a series that centres research methods and how they are interpreted and wielded by creative practitioners at KABK, the Royal Conservatoire (KC) The Hague, and beyond.

The series celebrates research as a verb. A verb that derives from the Early Modern French term, “recherche”, here translated as “to go about seeking”, and that reminds us of the self-aware intentionality of the researching mindset as well as the mobile, investigative, sensing qualities of the researching body. 

The first edition of the project focused on walking (2020); the second explored the sense of touch (2022); and with this third iteration, we tune into the registers of listening and the sonic.

The aim is that an exhibit, a video interview, a set of online resources and the pocket-sized publication, provide support for how to deepen a research practice, as well as inspiration and practicable instructions, recipes and prompts for how to begin one.

Listening: A Research Method in Art & Design is packed with interviews with established and emerging practitioners, written and visual essays and other formats for reflection on the findings, but also the dilemmas and failures, of research projects premised on listening. Representing disciplines as diverse as photography, furniture design, interior architecture, fine arts, sonology, artistic research and art-science, the contributors address topics ranging from anechoic chambers, antennae and deep listening, to weather satellites, whispering and zikr.

Each edition of the project foregrounds the practice and pedagogy of a KABK tutor. This time, our guide is the DJ, radiomaker, sonic artist, and KABK tutor, Loma Doom (aka Femke Dekker). Commissioned by the Design Lectorate, she led a year-long investigation into how sounding and listening are currently engaged with by tutors, students and staff throughout the University of the Arts The Hague, and how they can be nurtured more fully—specifically in relation to art and design education at KABK. 

The exhibit, A Listening Library for the (Speculative) Department of Sounding, is organised around a playlist of sonic artifacts and excerpts derived from essential theoretical texts, tracks, compilations, listening exercises, field recordings, and broadcasts. Each audio file on the playlist relates to a physical object displayed in the library and the exhibition visitor is invited to enjoy the resonance created between the acts of listening and looking. 

Contributors include: Jack Bardwell, spatial designer, radiomaker and KABK alum; Justin Bennett, audiovisual artist and KC Institute of Sonology tutor; Channa Boon, artist and KABK tutor; Louis Braddock Clarke, artist, researcher and KABK alum and tutor; Femke Dekker (aka Loma Doom), DJ, sound practitioner and KABK tutor; Benjamin Earl, designer, media artist and KABK alum and tutor; Cocky Eek, spatial artist and KABK-KC tutor; Cecilie Fang, artist, writer and KABK student; Martin Hurych, artist, curator and KC research associate; Christine Hvidt, artist and KABK-KC alum; Carl Johan Högberg, artist and KABK department co-head; Lance Laoyan, acoustic ecologist and KABK alum; Guy Livingston, pianist, radiomaker and KC alum and PhD candidate; Myles Merckel, art-science practitioner and KABK-KC alum; Sandipan Nath, industrial designer and KABK alum; Angelina Nonaj, artist and KABK alum; Gabriel Paiuk, composer, sound artist and DocArtes alum and KC tutor; Ege Şahin, composer, sound artist and KC student; Christian Schwarz, data sonifier, critical engineer and KABK-KC alum; Salomé Voegelin, sound theorist and professor, University of Arts London.

KABK Art & Design Research Practices: An initiative of the KABK Design Lectorate. For more information, please visit: lectoratedesign.kabk.nl.

Listening: A Research Method in Art & Design
Published by: KABK Design Lectorate, April 4, 2023, The Hague. 240 pages; full-colour. Edited by: Alice Twemlow / Designed by: Niels Schrader. Books are available for purchase using this link.