Harmonic Ignorance

This seminar develops the concept of 'harmonic ignorance' and explores the complex interplay where ignorance is identified as an active, strategic and systemic construct rather than simply a lack of knowledge.

By exploring sound and listening as an artistic research practice, the seminar examines how ignorance is harmonised within socio-political inequalities perpetuated by right-wing, racialised, gendered and economic norms - and how these can be disrupted through the sonic.

Integrating theoretical insights with practical experimentation, the course encourages students to work with sound and listening to reflect, challenge and transform strategic constructs of harmony and ignorance. Emphasizing non-heroic, every day, durational, and collaborative methods of resistance, the course highlights anti-fascist perspectives through the socio-political and cultural dimensions of sound.

The course unfolds in block seminars and invites students to develop projects inspired by sound, listening and artistic research to critically question and reinterpret the concepts of harmony and ignorance. The seminar will develop through theoretical insights, practical workshops, collaborative cooking, reading and listening sessions, film screenings and discussions to engage with sound and music, its theory and practice, leading up to collaborative artistic projects.

A key assignment involves forming and developing experimental bands, resulting in a public presentation and culminating in a collaborative podcast with Refuge Worldwide Radio at the end of the semester.

Main Sources:

Butler, Octavia E. (1998). Parable of the Talents.

Chang, Garma C. C. (1994). A Treasury of Mahayana Sutras.

Cousto, Hans. (2000). The Cosmic Octave: Origin of Harmony.

Glazer, Jonathan (2023). The Zone of Interest.

Helmreich, Stefan. (2015). Sounding the Limits of Life: Essays in the Anthropology of

Biology and Beyond.

Kivel, Paul. (2017). Uprooting Racism: How White People Can Work for Racial Justice (4th

edition).

Le Guin, Ursula K. (1997). Tao Te Ching.

Oliveros, Pauline. (2005). Deep Listening: A Composer’s Sound Practice.

Oliveros, Pauline. (1974). Sonic Meditations.

Sethares, William A. (2018). The Arithmetic of Listening: Tuning Theory and History for the

Impractical Musician.

Small, Christopher. (1970). Stockhausen Serves Imperialism and Other Articles.

Sullivan, Shannon, and Nancy Tuana, eds. (2007). Race and Epistemologies of Ignorance.

Williams, Saul and Anisia Uzeyman (2021). Neptune Frost.