The Center for Deep Listening
The Center for Deep Listening at Rensselaer stewards the practice of Deep Listening® pioneered by composer Pauline Oliveros. Deep Listening is, in Oliveros’ words, “a way of listening in every possible way to everything possible, to hear no matter what you are doing.” Our mission at the Center for Deep Listening is to foster creative innovation across boundaries and abilities, among artists and audiences, musicians and non-musicians, and children of all ages.
Established at Rensselaer in June 2014 under the guidance of founding Director, Tomie Hahn, the Center for Deep Listening offers online introductory courses, intensives and certification in Deep Listening, houses the archives of the Deep Listening Institute (founded by Oliveros in 1985), sponsors workshops and retreats in a range of community settings, and connects students with an international community of Deep Listening teachers.
The Center for Deep Listening supports and is supported by a worldwide network of musicians, artists, scientists, and certified Deep Listening practitioners — an ever-growing community of Deep Listeners who strive for a heightened consciousness of the world of sound and the sound of the world.
On campus at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, introductory and advanced courses in Deep Listening are offered to an interdisciplinary body of both undergraduate and graduate students. The CDL also offers workshops to the full campus community (faculty, staff, and students) on the connection between listening and well-being.
The CDL’s current research includes the social media publication project, A Year of Deep Listening (a community-driven exploration of the social, political, and ecological potential of Deep Listening), and a lecture series on Listening Practices and Decoloniality (2022-2024). Center director, Stephanie Loveless’ co-edited volume, Situated Listening (forthcoming in 2024 via Routledge), is a collection of essays that contribute theories and practices of embedded, contextual, and critical listening to growing literature in the field of sound studies.
