rile*books, Thu 10 December 2026 19h
Join us for a conversation about listening practices, stemming from the new book Listening Glossary, edited by Hannah Kemp-Welch and published by Spiral House, an imprint of Silver Press.
This glossary is a practical guide to listening as a social, political and imaginative practice. It gathers over two hundred terms from art, ecology, activism, psychology, education and philosophy, spanning nine decades of thinking about listening as a way of relating to others, environments and structures of power.
Focusing on two resonant entries, we invite book contributors Mélia Roger and Melissa Ryke to discuss their listening practices. Field recordist and artist Mélia Roger attaches microphones to her hands to connect with more-than-human entities, while artist and researcher Melissa Ryke proposes an ‘embodied listening’ that uses all the senses. Together with Hannah, they will share sounds, read extracts and explore evolving ideas around environmental and embodied listening practices, asking what listening might make possible.
About the book:
Listening Glossary explores the many meanings and practices of listening. In an era shaped by climate crisis, war and deepening social inequalities, listening is increasingly called upon to bear witness – to melting glaciers, disappearing species, militarised borders, extractive infrastructures and other forms of violence and loss.
This glossary is a practical guide to listening as a social, political and imaginative practice. It gathers over two hundred terms from art, ecology, activism, psychology, education and philosophy across nine decades of thinking about listening as a way of relating to others, environments and structures of power. Entries invite listening through another’s ears or from specific perspectives, encountering forms of listening that range from the non-cochlear to the interspecies. Together, these entries reveal listening as a critical method for understanding and transforming the worlds we inhabit.
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Speakers:
Hannah Kemp-Welch is a sound artist and researcher based in London. She produces audio features and live broadcasts, makes handmade listening devices and facilitates community workshops. Collective listening runs through this work as both a creative and critical method. Hannah teaches sound arts, collaborative practice and curation at University of the Arts London. Her writing on community art and listening has been published by Tate and the Barbican. She is a member of Shortwave Collective, a feminist radio art group.
Mélia Roger is a field recordist and artist engaged to inspire ecological change with environmental and empathic listening. Her work explores the sonic poetics of the landscape, searching for the invisible layers between human and non-humans. She is a practice-based PhD candidate at the University of Lille, focusing on the relations between sound arts and acoustic ecology.
Melissa Ryke’s practice-led research arises out of situated listening practices which form a critical and playful investigation of site, matter and mediated experiences. Through installation and time-based media, the key notion of bodily experience is explored through a phenomenological framework. Recent projects have been focused on embodied listening; listening and recording as a sensorial experience.
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This event is supported by the Doctoral School for Humanities and Social Sciences, KU Leuven, and LUCA School of Arts, in collaboration with the research cluster The Art of Resonance (KASK School of Arts, Ghent University). It is made possible through OJO funding, with the support of the Flemish Government.
Hannah Kemp-Welch will also be doing a listening session at KASK School of Arts, Ghent on Wed 9 December 2026 (Herculeslab, 17h), open for all.
