Soundscapes of Life:

Listening can change the world! This course offers new ways of engaging with the environmental issues of our time. Taking the belief that we can no longer approach possible solutions from a single sense modality perspective as our starting point, in this course we will develop our deep listening skills and explore the concept of ‘sonic rewilding’ together.

The world we have created, and the associated challenges that have resulted stem, in part, from the fact that we have allowed one sense to dominate – the visual sense. Using soundscape analysis, and the art and practice of listening, we will explore how getting back in touch with our other senses can help create new ways of engaging with some of the most pressing challenges we face. Our current polycrisis has its own soundscape, and by listening closely, we can work towards creating a more balanced harmonic world together. 

Whilst this course focuses on sound, the approach we will be using results from a type of listening which is more than the simple act of hearing – it is a corporeal and embodied practice which is accessible to all.  

Through a focus on the theory and practice of Resonance, advanced by German sociologist Hartmut Rosa, and by exploring human impacts on the global environment, this course will show how listening can be used to create what Rosa calls: ‘spheres of resonance’ which present opportunities for the emergence of entirely new relationship with the world and, possibly, a truly regenerative and flourishing future.