Rotterdam – The Italian Cultural Institute of Amsterdam is collaborating with Nieuwe Instituut’s Through Sounds programme and ALMARE on a roundtable discussion dedicated to ecological listening, climate change and the politics of sound. The event, scheduled for May 28 at 5 p.m. at Rotterdam’s Digital Lab, will feature contributions from Through Sounds, ALMARE, KMRU, Katía Truijen of Loom, and Martina Raponi. Using ALMARE’s Near Silence project as a starting point, the roundtable invites artists and researchers to reflect on the “politics of silence,” exploring how sound can serve as an indicator of the health of more-than-human environments. The discussion will address questions such as the role artists and scholars can play in intervening within soundscapes saturated by human presence, and the extent to which “noise” and “silence” are socially constructed concepts. Curated and produced by ALMARE, Near Silence focuses on rural and semi-rural areas characterised by quietness, considered privileged listening points for understanding climate change and the erosion of soundscapes. The project involves Nairobi-born, Berlin-based sound artist KMRU and Nairobi-based filmmaker Fred Odede during a residency in remote Alpine areas of northern Italy, where they are gathering field recordings and interviews with local communities. Positioned at the intersection of art and science, the roundtable expands these lines of inquiry by examining the conditions and technologies of ecological listening, exploring how sonic practices shape relationships between environments, living ecologies and urban forms, and how listening technologies influence what can be perceived, recorded and understood. (9colonne)