Department of 
Sonic Affairs


 
Division of Creative Research Practice
  1. About the Division
  2. Research Questions


Bureau of Public Listening
  1. About the Bureau  
  2. Field Line








Research Questions




The Division investigates listening as both attention practice and reciprocal relationship—with sound, place, and the more-than-human world.


Creative research practice honors questions as living inquiries—held through embodied attention and sustained relationship with place, rather than seeking definitive answers or extractive data.



Research Modalities:
  • Field recording as reciprocal practice
  • Embodied and attentive listening
  • Place-based, long-term documentation
  • Participatory and community-engaged inquiry
  • Seasonal and ecological observation


Research Questions:How do listening practices restore our capacity for depth and attention in an overstimulating world?

How can field recording become a practice of reciprocal relationship rather than extractive documentation?

How does sound carry memory? What do places remember through their soundscapes?

What would it mean to offer attention rather than pay attention?

What does it mean to listen-with rather than listen-to? How does this shift create reciprocal relationship with the animate world?