Fall 2014 Honorary Fellow
Fellow: Or Zubalsky
Project: The Ongoing Listenings

About The Ongoing Listenings

The Ongoing Listenings was a series of participatory performances for musicians and an audience in the dark. The performances were structured to facilitate a non discussion about difficult themes and issues. The series took a phenomenological approach to facilitation, encouraging attentive acts and affective listenings. The performances explored the use sound as a tool for facilitation and mediation. They facilitated a non-discussion about current events surrounding the conflict in Israel and Palestine. The experiential nature of the performances explored and encouraged affective listening in a physical meeting space.

Each evening was centered on a different theme, which was selected by a group of organizers. At the beginning of each performance, a text was read to welcome the participants and introduce the theme for the evening. Whoever wished to could speak about the theme, ask a question, raise a concern, or share a story. When they were finished, the musicians played an improvisation, clearing the space for the next person. The silence, darkness, and music dictated a slow pace, shifting the focus to the sonic and the individual voices.

ARtist Bio

Or Zubalsky is an artist, musician, and programmer born in Israel and working in Brooklyn, NY. He is part of the collectives Fantastic Futures and Trade School, and music projects Juviley and The Youngest. His work and collaborations have been supported by The New Museum, The Museum of Art and Design, Queens Museum of Art, Rhizome, Eyebeam, iLand, Culture Push, Vox Populi, PNEM Sound Art Festival, and Sheila C. Johnson Design Center. Zubalsky presented collaborations and projects at TedX, College Art Association, CUNY Grad Center, ArtsTech, and Maker Faire.