The Listening Academy online–Cosmopoetics

Cosmopoetics – practices of vitality

The Listening Academy - Online course with Brandon LaBelle

November 2, 9, 16, 23, 2026 / 14:00 - 16:00 CET

Extending from our recent work on poetic knowledge, the course sets out to present and elaborate the topic of Cosmopoetics as a world-creating approach centered on vitality, animacy and a culture of life. Importantly, cosmopoetics is emphasized as the articulation of a cosmology of connection, one that shifts from a logic of separation underpinning traditions of scientific objectivity and toward a poetic ecology of shared vitality. Cosmopoetics is a critical, creative framework for nurturing ecological compassion and human and more-than-human affiliations; it opens onto radical forms of participation and the capacity to sense the interconnectedness of things, lending to what Ailton Krenak terms a “cosmic sense of life” – and which emerges as a refusal of dominant structures of enclosure, extraction, violence. We’re interested to explore cosmopoetics as a pronounced form of relational responsibility or cosmic form of listening, which can enliven our critical, creative practices with a festivity of imagination: to synchronize with the rhythms of a natural bond – finding ways to perform as a “caretaker of the cosmos”. 

Developed as part of the curatorial research for The Listening Biennial 2027, the course aims at elaborating a cosmopoetic approach, giving detail to sympathetic forms of knowing and practicing that may reorient dominant methodologies of production, to work at honoring and nurturing life as shared vitality. This includes proposing four research paths or listening journeys, including: sonic animacy (sound as energy and relational being), cosmic time (echologies of memory, sonic heritage and living in resonance), the felt anchor (embodied practices and a vibrational knowledge of the root, the earth, the gut), and planetary citizenship (listening, reciprocity and the work of devotion). We’ll elaborate these four paths through explorative lectures by Brandon LaBelle drawing from a range of diverse references, followed by collective discussions and the sharing of individual reflections and experiences. In addition, we’ll open the possibility of creating related audio works or creative scores, connecting to the topics and discussions. Overall, we look forward to developing an experimental, poetic discourse that can support the world-creating, world-tending work of a cosmic imagination. 

Apply: 

We welcome letters of interest from researchers, organizers, practitioners and educators curious to investigate cosmopoetic methodologies and perspectives. The course is limited to 30 participants. We kindly request a fee of 100 euro for attending the course, with a reduced rate of 85 euro for students. We also offer a few places for those without financial resources. Please send letters, sharing details on your interest in the topic, along with a short CV by September 25, 2026; questions or inquiries can also be addressed to: listeningaca@gmail.com

Schedule:

1. November 2, 14:00 - 16:00 CET: Sonic Animacy / sound as energy and relational being

2. November 9, 14:00 - 16:00 CET: Cosmic Time / echologies of memory, sonic heritage and living in resonance

3. November 16, 14:00 - 16:00 CET: The Felt Anchor / embodied practices and a vibrational knowledge of the root, the earth, the gut

4. November 22, 14:00 - 16:00 CET: Planetary Citizenship / listening, reciprocity and the work of devotion

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Brandon LaBelle is an artist, writer, theorist and artistic director of The Listening Biennial. His work focuses on questions of agency, community, pirate culture, and poetics, which results in a range of collaborative and extra-institutional initiatives, including Communities in Movement (2019-23), Oficina de Autonomia (2017-), The Living School (2014-16), The Imaginary Republic (2014-19), Dirty Ear Forum (2013-22), Surface Tension (2003-2008), and Beyond Music Sound Festival (1998-2002). In 1995 he founded Errant Bodies Press, an independent publishing project supporting work in sound art and studies, performance and poetics, artistic research and contemporary political thought. His publications include: Poetics of Listening (2025), Dreamtime X (2022), Acoustic Justice (2021), The Other Citizen (2020), Sonic Agency (2018), Lexicon of the Mouth (2014), Diary of an Imaginary Egyptian (2012), Acoustic Territories (2010), and Background Noise: Perspectives on Sound Art (2006).