There was no emphasis on methodology in my training. In retrospect I think this was because I entered sound studies by way of a cultural studies disciplinary framing, with a strong influence from critical theory and cultural marxism. This produced a philosophical approach combined with a concern for everyday culture that was at once suspicious of formalized methodology and assumed a methodology driven by textual analysis, decoding meaning, and critical thinking. Critical approaches remain core to my work but I now reach beyond meaning and the centering of ’texts’, interested to address the affective and the complexity of different perspectives. A concern for understanding and integrating the shared basis of my writing, organizational work, and other creative works has led me to realize that listening, organization, and critical reflection are core to my research. This is a methodology, which underpins my claims to knowledge and is carried out through specific methods.

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Recently my car suddenly threw up an ‘Engine Fault’ warning and I called my mechanic, who said to bring it straight over. When I arrived I pulled up, got out, and started to describe the situation. Before I could finish he said, ‘I can hear it’s only running on three cylinders’. What sounded like a small engine growling and a fan going into overdrive was much more nuanced to him. It reminded me of when I traveled across Russia by train many years ago. Often when we got out at a station while the train stopped at the various towns and cities along the way there would be attendants walking down the train hitting the undercarriage - the mechanics and wheels - with big, heavy wrenches. The metal on metal of the strikes produced tuned percussive tones, which chimed down the platform. The workers were seemingly listening for anything out of place. Trained ears.

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The word listen is an intransitive verb. It requires pairing with the preposition to in order to be able to act on or affect something else, a direct object. I listen to music. This can seem like a limitation, an indication that listening as a practice isn’t active, doesn’t act on the world. However, this detail of language reflects a reality of listening. It is possible, perhaps even more fundamental, to listen without listening to something in particular. Listening can be an openness that constitutes listening subjects rather than expressing subjective force on the world. It is active in its role in the happening of subjectivity, personal and collective. We listen. We can even form a sentence with the word on its own, an imperative. Listen.

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