With microphones attached to my hands and listening to the amplified touch through the headphones, I explore the hidden layers of the landscape. Inspired by the notion of « in-between » developed by sound artist and researcher Salomé Voegelin, the sonic textures created with this concept are highlighting relations normally existing in void and silence, without any touch. The point of connection, first thought as a sonic friction, can actually be explored with care and tenderness, questioning the consent of others. Trying to shift away from an anthropocentric listening position, I developed the concept of „eco-empathic listening“ in order to address the act of carefully listening to non-human and more-than-human beings. I caress with care the surfaces of rocks, lichens, barks and my own skin. With delicacy and attention, I try to welcome the otherness as an empathic extension of myself. Within the context of this master project, my main
research question is: How could eco-empathic listening informs an ecological sensibility by exploring (in)tangible otherness? « Otherness », in this context, is understood as the « more than human » living beings encountered with the affective and relational qualities produced by listening and touching.
