In the Blink of an Ear embraces a collective and collaborative approach around sound art, building since its beginnings a community around this medium. Since 2022, the project has been conceived as an open, collaborative sound laboratory that explores processes of perception and enables collaborative creative actions.
The medium of sound forms the basis for consciously perceiving and renegotiating spaces, environments and social situations. Listening exercises, sound walks and performative actions give rise to processes in which hearing becomes a tool for joint research. Its aim is to create low-threshold access to art and develop formats that involve local communities and bring together people from different backgrounds.
The format focuses on an organic intertwining of practice and theory and is based on open, horizontal structures. Knowledge is created through joint action; local project participants actively shape the process. The result is not a finished work, but a temporary social structure that is formed through cooperation, listening and situational action. In this way, In the Blink of an Ear creates space for a lived, democratic coexistence. The project initially started in Bucharest and has had various manifestations to date. With the aim of decentralising cultural initiatives and dismantling authorship-related hierarchies, we decided to hold actual and future manifestations in more peripheral locations.
The processual aspect is not only important within our joint collaboration itself. Our entire long-term project is a continuous process and adapts from situation to situation. This means that the various manifestations are not simply a repetition of the same project, but rather a continuation that responses to the context of each location and topic, and evolves over time.
An important constant throughout these manifestations, however, is the perception and exploration of the surrounding spaces, environment and people. These themes manifest themselves in various listening exercises, performances and sound walks, which serve as the basis for the collaborative artistic works. Hearing and listening become central tools in this process, contributing to the temporary expansion of the limits of perception and the execution of process-oriented creative actions.
The first three manifestations since 2022 all had different focal themes related to the respective venue and space. In the Blink of an Ear: Plug In dealt with the topic of hardware: low-tech and DIY devices. Our main tools were piezo mics, coil inductors and circuit bend walkmans. The playful use of tapes and DIY analog devices allowed us to reclaim and explore the specific aesthetics of these medias and propose an alternative history in terms of sound transmission.
Critical walking/listening methodologies were the main topics we delved into in our 2nd manifestation: In the Blink of an Ear: Steps. Adding a political layer, we set out exploring various listening practices, being aware of the visibility (or invisibility) of various bodies (of ours and others) within the public space. Following a queer-feminist approach on the soundwalking methodology, we explored the concept of walking with, walking consciously, acknowledging the political, cultural, and affective dimensions of bodies in motion.
Our last manifestation took place in Iași and focussed on the city itself. In the Blink of an Ear: Iași – Playing the City introduced playful and critical approaches to explore the public space, its acoustic properties, and the social and political phenomena that shaped it. The topic was underpinned by self-reflective theoretical and philosophical questions, including the contemporary relevance of issues such as noise pollution from the 1970s, in addition to the political framework of bodies in motion and bodies in public space, as addressed in the previous manifestation.