Academy - Berlin

September 2 - 6, 2025:

In their work on personal and collective repair, Jessica Benjamin poses the idea of the Third as a deeply relational, ethical model which emphasizes mutuality and co-creation. For Benjamin, the Third names an intersubjective and interdependent process for building collaborative, restorative journeys. By way of the rhythms and reasons of the Third, a dynamic of shared agency is nurtured. In particular, the Third is marked by a commitment to each other, shaped by recognition of uneven power relations and structural violences as well as a belief in reparative action. Considering Benjamin’s highly evocative relational model, in what ways does the Third suggest a particular form of listening? If the Third operates as a process of mutual co-creation, holding a time and space for recognition of injury and the possibility of repair, does it necessitate a unique form of listening, one that contributes to the work of change?

In reflecting upon the urgencies and potentialities of mutuality, this edition of The Listening Academy poses Third Listening as a creative, critical framework. Third Listening is emphasized as a generative form of listening that supports restorative process. Third Listening is about fostering care and concern by acknowledging individual histories and cultural viewpoints while challenging us to listen out for the unheard and the marginalized, the left-behind and the hurt. As Homi Bhabha suggests through his concept of Third Space, the cultural encounters provoked by colonial modernity forcibly staggers fixed identities, giving onto liminal scenes which unsettle dominant structures and narratives. These are spaces and scenes that invite plurality and ways of hearing the cacophony of a troubled world. 

Third Listening is offered as an invitation to explore together how we may listen-with troubled realities, suggesting a shift from a language of mastery to one of situated collaboration, from a culture of independence to an ethics of interdependency as well as a focus on reciprocity. This includes acknowledging how listening is strained by current violences and struggles. If the Third is posed as a means for holding a connection to others as Benjamin suggests, what creative and critical resources or practices does this entail?

Exploring Third Listening through a range of theoretical reflections, shared stories and material testings, we’ll work at cultivating practices of reciprocity so as to engage the intersubjective and interdependent as the basis for maintaining a collective world. This will integrate a number of areas of focus, including: explorative methods of voicing as a means for attuning to our individual and collective bodies (posing the concept of a Third Voice); elaborating ideas and gestures of social listening and how we may attend to the stories of others, cultivating methods of collaboration sensitive to the particularities of place and people (relating to the topic of narrative hospitality). From somatic resonance and sounding vocal bodies to engaging the worlds of others, we’ll further explore Third Listening as ecologically-oriented, where connections with the more-than-human can be elaborated (extending ideas of Third Space toward Gilles Clément’s concept of Third Landscape, as interstitial zones of planetary, biological flourishing). 

The Academy will be structured so as to invite individual practices, stories and dreams, as well as collective activity, which can enhance creative and critical work. We’ll compile ideas and reflections as well as ways of working, delving into Third Listening as a speculative arena and reparative, restorative process. Through sharing in this listening journey together, we aim to bring energy, care and hope to our current times. 

The Listening Academy Berlin is facilitated by Lílian Campesato, Christiane Hommelsheim, Brandon LaBelle, ~pes (Elizabeth Gallón Droste & Pablo Torres Gómez), with the participation of Lucy Finchett-Maddock, Diana Duta, Marlijn Karsten, Anna Switaj, Mári Mákó, Pawel Swierczek, Maytik Avirama, Zuzka Ernst, Anna Andrejew, Susana Ojeda, Nina Nikic, Martina Melilli, Kandis Friesen, Lorena Carràs, Patricia Hegglin, Ekaterina Volkova, Sophie Warmbrunn, Gaia Ginevra Giorgi, Kosmas Phan Ðinh , Theo Ferreira Gomes, Shona Stark, Samual Hertz, Maguette Dieng, Amias Hanley, Yoichi Iwamoto, Juliana Herrero, Max Bloching, Tanja Saban, Ether O, Giulia Mengozzi, Elizabeth Salazar Guerra.