This eleventh episode of Radio Show Me What Democracy Looks Like was created the day after the US Midterm elections as part of Scottish artist Ross Birrell’s visit to Ohio to accompany his banner ‘democracy to come’ and its installation in the Sullivant Hall rotunda at Ohio State University for the month of November. The episode looks to the future of democracy and related ideas of democratic possibilities and alternatives, tuning into Birrell’s and David Harding’s Symphony of Sorrowful Songs (2017) and and the freedom of listening.
The Future, Possibilities & Alternatives in Democratic Visual Culture
Ross Birrell & David Harding Symphony of Sorrowful Songs (2017)
In the Megaron Basement during Epicycle in Exergue on documenta 14
Musical Outro: ‘Helpless’ from the musical Hamilton
Footnote on the Freedom of Listening
For some time now, I’ve been thinking about the fact that the problem of listening is very much entwined with the problem of democratic being.We think of the freedom of speech as one of the fundamental notions in democracy. But without the freedom of listening, the freedom of speech, you can understand, can become a useless, narcissistic exercise of hearing your own voice.
- Stathis Gourgouris
