On the Threshold of Listening
“When Spivak asks: Can the Subaltern speak? I ask, who is listening?”
On the Threshold of Listening (2017) is an investigation of the politics/poetics of listening.
While speaking is often taken as central to the exercise of power, less examined is the role of listening. Yet, if the core responsibility of the representative is to speak on behalf of those for whom he or she stands in, then surely the task must include the ability to listen.
Listening, unlike hearing, is an experience of difficulty. It requires effort, persistence and the presence of others. Further enlisting the participation of the audience, the work calls on us to reconsider what it means to assemble so as to to listen.
​The work takes the form of a lecture performance, which unfolds in 4 chapters: ​
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1) Heterolingual mode of address, and the Other
2) The ear-worm Workshop : Your East is my West ( Following your songs)
3) The quotidian-sublime
4) The death of Listening: embodied Listening
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This work was first performed at the Old Parliament House in Singapore, as part of For Lack of a Better Word, curated by Ho Rui An, for the Singapore International Festival of Arts.
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Read more about For Lack of a Better Word here.
Performance of On the Threshold of Listening, Singapore Old Parliament House, as part of For Lack of a Better Word, Singapore International Festival of the Arts
Watch the full video here.