Socially-engaged art projects are rarely initiated by the communities they seek to serve. Though arts organisation’s efforts (consultation, co-production and partnership models) go some way to address this, inequality often remains ingrained in projects from their inception. As a practitioner and researcher, my work critically reviews tensions around participation, ownership and representation in such projects, seeking strategies that respond to and mitigate issues of inequality within artist-community relationships. My research asks, how can social art challenge uneven power-relations, even when set within frameworks serving neoliberal agendas? 

My presentation proposes that ‘collective listening’can serve as a levelling tool, applied as a useful and usable model for dissecting power dynamics. Sound arts theory proposes distinct models of listening as an artistic practice (embodied, deep, imaginative etc). I take these out of the abstract and develop them within new contexts, to propose tangible and effective ways to listen that can support equitable creative relationships. I will share insights on listening collected from interviews with artists, and introduce listening activities that can be embedded into social art projects. My provocation asks – how can an artistic and collective practice of listening be generative for creative endeavours with others? How could this support equitable relationships?