Points of Listening: Reflections on the Collective, Communal and Participatory in Sonic Practice

How might polyphony operate across the collective, communal, and participatory dimen-sions of sonic practices? What aesthetic and political observations can be gleaned from listening and sound making that attend to the simultaneous affects of shared sonic experi-ences? This essay reflects on the possibility of plurality in collective and participatory listening and sound making in relation to the project Points of Listening (PoL), an ongoing series of workshops and discussions, co-convened by the authors, in association with Creative Research into Sound Arts Practice, CRiSAP, University of the Arts London.