Study Day: Listening to Live Art Archives

Join us for a performance lecture with Johanna Linsley and sound artist Nicol Parkinson, drawing from Deveron Projects' archives. What does listening sound like? Who listens and who gets listened to? Does live art demand a different kind of listening? Johanna Linsley will share Noises for Listening, a new performance work made in collaboration with sound artist Nicol Parkinson. Noises for Listening uses the sounds people make when listening (shuffling, laughing, coughing, clapping) as compositional material. The work is a response to the archives of Deveron Projects, a socially engaged arts organisation that has worked for thirty years with communities in Huntly, in rural Aberdeenshire. The performance will open up to a conversation about what it means to listen to and in live work, and how the role of the listener is complicated in community-based art. It puts the Deveron Projects archives in conversation with the Live Art Research Collection and asks how sonic attention can shift perspectives on both. Noises for Listening is a 30-minute performance lecture with presentation slides and recorded sound. It will be followed by a 10-minute talk by Nicol Parkinson and a 30-minute open conversation with Linsley, Parkinson, LADA staff members, Deveron Projects staff members, and the audience. There will be time for informal conversation at the end. Johanna Linsley is an artist and researcher who works across performance, sound, and text. She is interested in the ways listening engages with practices of assembly and collective imagination. She worked for a decade with the late artist Rebecca Collins using expanded ideas of eavesdropping as an artistic methodology. Their co-authored book Sonic Detection: Necessary Notes for Arts and Performance was published in 2026 by punctum books and their album Stolen Voices001 was shortlisted for a New Music Scotland award in 2021. Johanna’s book Form and Formlessness in Contemporary Live Art is forthcoming from Cambridge University Press. Event information This event is seated. Various seating options will be available including fold out chairs, office chairs, a sofa and a bench. All are welcome to join in a relaxed space and are free to come and go as they please. The lighting will be fixed with no sudden changes and microphone amplification will be used. There are disposable masks and hand sanitiser available. After the discussion there will be an opportunity to socialise. LADA space The building is wheelchair accessible by lift and provides a wheelchair accessible ground-floor bathroom. All bathrooms are gender inclusive. There is no isolated quiet space inside, but there is a small quiet outdoor area. Some of the art on display in the space includes naked bodies. You can find more information and see photos of the space here. Should you have any particular access requirements, please email [email protected] and we will be happy to offer further support. Content notes Please email [email protected] if you would like more information on what to expect. Please note this event will be recorded.