Infinite Ear

What if the journey in the deaf spectrum was considered as a gain and not as a loss? Following the provocative proposal by H-Dirksen L. Bauman and Joseph J. Murray in the famous essay “Deaf Gain: Raising the Stakes for Human Diversity” 1 , Infinite Ear inquires about the transformations of hearing with d/Deaf knowledge.

Operating at the intersection of arts, sciences and Deaf culture, Infinite Ear is a long-term collaborative research with deaf and hard-of-hearing people around accessing and imagining sound through the making of music, exhibition and institutions.

Initiated in 2013 as a commission by Al Amal School for the Deaf and the Sharjah Art Foundation in the United Arab Emirates, Infinite Ear has gathered visual artists, sign language interpreters, musicians, dancers, architects, and writers through a series of events, collective exhibitions and new works.

Architect Jeffrey Mansfield running a workshop with students from the Al Amal school for the Deaf about enriching description of sound perception in sign language. Sharjah Art Foundation, 2013
Choreographer Noe Soulier and architect Jeffrey Mansfield, performing Deaf Sound, a choreography composed of gestures to describe sounds in sign language, MoMA, 2014
Deep Listening session by Pauline Oliveiros and Ione, Bergen Assembly 2016
View of the installation New Listeners by Alison O’Daniel, CentroCentro, 2019, Ph: Lukas Michalak for CentroCentro.
Session from A Misreading Guide for Listening, Garage Museum, 2018
‘Portraits’, Garage Museum, 2018
Installation view, Bergen Assembly, 2016
Talk by Grégory Castéra ‘Infinite Ear : A Curatorial Inquiry’ at Samtidskonstdagarna, Boden, 2018
Poster ‘Contingent Studies in Sensing Sound’, 2017

 

 

 

 

 

Infinite Ear is a project by Council, initiated in collaboration with Tarek Atoui (2013-ongoing).

INITIATED WITH

Sharjah Art Foundation
Al Amal School for the Deaf

CO-PRODUCED BY

MoMA PS1
Bergen Assembly
Garage Museum of Contemporary Art
CentroCentro

SUPPORTED BY

Abu Dhabi Music & Arts Foundation
French Embassy of New York
Harvard Graduate School of Design
Foundation for Arts Initiatives

Top image: Activation of Tarek Atoui’s piece ‘WITHIN’, Garage Museum, 2018

1. “Deaf Gain : Raising the Stakes for Human Diversity”, 2014 • H-Dirksen L. Bauman and Joseph J. Murray, Editors, Foreword by Andrew Solomon, Afterword by Tove Skutnabb-Kangas.

INFINITE EAR

19.
Infinite Ear III, CentroCentro, Madrid, 2019-2020
Collective Exhibition, Program

18.
Infinite Ear: A curatorial inquiry, Statens Konstråd, Stockholm, 2018
Talk
– Grégory Castéra

17.
Infinite Ear: Portraits, 2018
Edition
– Goda Budvytyte (design), Lawrence Abu Hamdan, Grégory Castéra, Vinciane Despret, Mara Mills, Louise Stern, Sophie Wooley

16.
A (Mis)rader’s Guide to Listening, 2018
New work
– Lendl Barcelos, Valentina Desideri, Myriam Lefkovitz

15.
Discussion on Infinite Ear, Garage Museum of Contemporary Art, Moscow, 2018
Roundtable
– Tarek Atoui, Grégory Castéra, Sandra Terdjman, Anastasia Mityushina, Iaroslav Volovod

14.
Infinite Ear II, Garage Museum of Contemporary Art, Moscow, 2018
Collective Exhibition, Program

13.
New Listeners, 2018–
New work
– Alison O’Daniel

12.
Contingent Studies in Sensing Sound, 2017 
Poster
– Goda Budvytyte (design)

11.
Contingent Studies in Sensing Sound, Cure Park, Amsterdam, 2017 
Program
– Lendl Barcelos, Valentina Desideri, Myriam Lefkowitz

10.
Within/Infinite Ear, Bergen Assembly, 2016
Collective Exhibition

9.
Tacet or the Cochlear Vertigo : Towards the Limits of Hearing, 2016
Essay

8.
The Cochlear Vertigo, TBA21, Vienna, 2015
Talk
– Grégory Castéra

7.
Introduction to Council: Infinite Ear, Samdani Art Foundation, Dhaka, 2015
Talk
– Sandra Terdjman, Grégory Castéra

6.
What Now?: The Politics of Listening, Art in General, New York, 2015
Roundtable
– Gregory Castéra, Laurie Jo Reynolds, Kade L. Twist

5.
The Cochlear Vertigo, Ashkal Alwan, Beirut, 2015
Talk
– Sandra Terdjman, Tarek Atoui

4.
Infinite Ear, Kunstinstituut Melly, Rotterdam, 2014
Talk
– Sandra Terdjman

3.
TACET II: Deaf Sound, MoMA PS1, New York 2014
Program

2.
WITHIN, 2013–
New work
– Tarek Atoui

1.
TACET I, Sharjah Biennial, 2013
Event, Publication