Human Echoes: a dialogue on cultures of listening

Introduction
Human Echoes: a half day dialogue on cultures of listening is the first stage of Proboscis' Human Echoes project and will bring together a group of experts from the arts, civil society organisations and academia. Human Echoes intends to stimulate discussion of different approaches to changing the nature of our relationships to each other and the environment by identifying cultures of listening and attempting to understand their dynamics. Proboscis has commissioned artist Camilla Brueton to make a new work in response to the dialogue.

Aim
The aim of the event is to draw out what it means to create 'cultures of listening', generating a set of ideas about how cultures of listening enable knowledge mapping and sharing and how that in turn can help people address concepts of interdependence in ways that are relevant to our lives.

Theme
Proboscis' Social Tapestries programme can be seen as a metaphor to describe interdependence (of communities and people) through its exploration of how people weave threads of knowledge and experience across the public domain – creating a public knowledge commons. The everyday experience of sound and skills of listening are largely dominated by visual culture, yet cultures of listening are crucial to cultural experience and understanding human relationships; from the intimate to the civic, local to international.

Bringing the discussion of these issues to the human dimension allows us to explore how human creativity can be seen as a fundamental source of energy and inspiration to create innovative solutions. A key aspect of society's ability to do this will revolve around understanding, using and expanding concepts and practices of listening.
The dialogue will be inspired by Bohm dialogue which, in keeping with concept of interdependence, is about open exchange rather than lecture, discourse or debate.

Interdependence Day (2 - 6pm)
The dialogue will be followed by the UK's first Interdependence Day, organised by the New Economics Foundation and the Open University. ID day considers the key challenges of environmental change and globalization with a range of afternoon activities including 'Declarations of Interdependence', 'Save the World in Sixty Minutes', a film programme, creative workshops, performance and displays of design and technology. During the afternoon Proboscis will be exhibiting the Social Tapestries and DIFFUSION projects and their recent publications along with the short films Annotating the City and Topographies & Tales (work in progress).

Please Note -  This event is free but to cover the administrative costs of late cancellations A NO-SHOW FEE of £15 + VAT will be charged if cancellations are not made more then 24 hrs in advance.

Details