Listen (Kathleen Forde - Guest Curator)

'Listen' is a selection of artist videos and films that encourage us to think about the act and implications of listening. Generally, it is assumed that our sense of sight is our most active sense in terms of how we experience and filter the world that surrounds us. Hearing is seemingly a more passive experience. However, the artists in this compilation not only remind us of the profound impact that sound and hearing have on our everyday visual lives, but likewise reawaken our awareness of the process of listening itself. The videos present a cross-section of strategies that artists are using toward this end, including soundtracks that influence our vision, the sonification of visual experiences, experiments in synesthesia, and a number of protagonists who invite us to listen to them listen. Artists include Scott Arford, Douglas Ross, Christian Marclay, Stephen Vitiello, Forced Entertainment, Mark Orange, Michael Joaquin Grey, Thom Kubli, Gary Hill and Petra Lindhom, among others. Kathleen Forde, the curator of this program, is the Exhibitions and Program Coordinator at the Eyebeam Center for Art and Technology in New York.