Machine Listener is an audio essay series featuring musicians, researchers, scientists, and artists whose work intersects with the topic of listening in the digital age. The episodes take a close look at the ways in which the listening sense has transformed through our interactions with technology, and the ways in which technology is informed by the listening sense. Produced by Aimée Theriot with the support of Stimuleringsfonds, NL.

This episode explores the origins of the field of Machine Listening, the potential of its aesthetic explorations, and the importance of critiquing this emerging field.

Machine Listening is a project established in 2020 by artist-researchers Sean Dockray, James Parker, and Joel Stern. It functions as a platform for collaborative research and experimentation focused on the computation, capture, and control of sound and speech.

James Parker: Director of a research program on Law, Sound and the International at the Institute for International Law and the Humanities (IILAH) at Melbourne Law School. His research focuses on the relations between law, sound and listening, with a particular emphasis on international criminal law, the law of war and privacy.

Sean Dockray: Artist and writer whose work explores the politics of technology, with a particular emphasis on artificial intelligences and the algorithmic web. He is a founding director of the Los Angeles non-profit Telic Arts Exchange, and initiator of knowledge-sharing platforms, The Public School and AAAARG.ORG.

Joel Stern: Researcher, curator, and artist and currently holds the position of Vice Chancellor’s Postdoctoral Fellow in DSC|School-Media & Communication, RMIT. With a background in experimental music, Stern’s work focuses on practices of sound and listening and how these shape our contemporary worlds.Stern was Artistic Director of pioneering Australian sonic art organisation Liquid Architecture, 2013–2022.

→ Music

Martina Raponi - Unnatural Speech Processing

George Lewis feat. Derek Bailey - Rainbow Family

Sean Dockray - Always Learning

Roslyn Orlando - Unnatural Language Processing

Sue Tompkins - Netherworld

Terre Taehmlitz - Silent Passability (Ride to the countryside)

Bonnie Jones + Andrea Neumann - Belle Reed