My conversation withcomposer, sound artist, media artist and facilitator Tina Pearson, whose work explores nuanced sonic investigations of perception, presence and place. suggests we slow down and listen, which I often hear artists suggest on this podcast but how does one do that? Well, soundwalking is one way to do, which what Tina and I did during our 90-minute conversation, recorded in September 2024 at PKOLS park, translates to ‘White Head’ or ‘White Rock’ in the SENĆOŦEN language of the W̱SÁNEĆ peoples, also known as Mt. Douglas Park inVictoria, British Columbia. I edited down our long conversation to 15-minutes, which as you will hear is accompanied by rainfall and the magnificent Pacific Ocean.
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Show notes generated by Whisper Transcribe AI:
Story Preview
Imagine walking through a park, not just seeing, but truly listening. What if our art could heal, not harm, the world around us? Join me and Tina Pearson as we explore the profound act of listening to place and the courage it takes to question our creative practices.
Chapter Summary
00:00 Defining Art and Sound Practice
01:06 The Art of Sound Walking
02:16 Reciprocity with Nature
03:49 Untethering from Modernity
05:02 The Gift of Listening
06:36 Rethinking Artistic Practices
09:14 Community-Centric Art Practices
12:19 Listening to Place and Community
Featured Quotes
Behind the Story
This conversation, recorded at PKOLS Park in September 2024, dives into Tina Pearson’s philosophy of sound and place. It challenges the conventional approaches to art and climate action, advocating for a deeper, more reciprocal relationship with the environment. Pearson’s personal background as a first-generation North American informs her perspective on decolonization and untethering from harmful systems.
Note: This is an automated transcription that is provided for those who prefer to read this conversation and for documentation. It has been verified but is not 100% accurate (some names might not be quite right). Please contact me if you would like to quote from this transcript: claude@conscient.ca.
[00:00:00 - 00:00:09] Tina Pearson
Well, I mean, I don't know. What is art? What is art anyway? That's a new. It's a new term. Really.
[00:00:09 - 00:00:10] Claude Schryer
Yeah, yeah, relatively.
[00:00:10 - 00:00:49] Tina Pearson
It's, it's. You know, I think that we're. I think we need to go a little bit beyond that and think about ourselves as, like. I think of myself as a sound practitioner. So what can I offer? If someone has a visual acuity, if someone has, you know, acuity with body and movement and voice, you know, what. What is it that we can do in our communities to help people to listen, to be in their bodies, to breathe?
[00:00:49 - 00:01:48] Host
Episode 217. My conversation with composer, sound artist, media artist and facilitator Tina Pearson, whose work explores nuanced sonic investigations of perception, presence and place. Tina suggests that we slow down and listen. But how does one actually do that? Well, sound walking is one way and that's what Tina and I did during this 90 minute conversation recorded in September 2024 at at PKOLS park, translates to ‘White Head’ or ‘White Rock’ in the SENĆOŦEN language of the W̱SÁNEĆ. So I've edited this long conversation down to 15 minutes, which you'll hear is accompanied by rainfall and the Pacific.
[00:01:48 - 00:03:15] Tina Pearson
And so I find that practice, it's just informing what I do to have that grounded, rooted relationship with place here, but also just wherever I go, as a way to maybe contemplate being more of service rather than taking. I think it's, you know, compelling to think about taking sounds or taking experiences from here and taking them out then into the digital world or a gallery space, you know, and I'm, I really, I'm, you know, I like to do that. I'm also thinking, how does that, does that benefit this tree right here that we're standing in front of? Is there any reciprocity in me being here and taking that experience with this tree, the cedar tree here, that fir tree there, the canopy, the different little creatures that are here. And I think that we were talking earlier about that. What was it the hospice for? Modernity.
[00:03:15 - 00:03:16] Claude Schryer
[00:03:16 - 00:03:17] Tina Pearson
Hospicing Modernity.
[00:03:17 - 00:03:18] Claude Schryer
Vanessa Andreotti
[00:03:18 - 00:03:26] Tina Pearson
Yeah. I mean, that's beautiful. And I so much agree with that kind of. I think what they're saying. Tearing it apart.
[00:03:26 - 00:03:28] Claude Schryer
Yeah. Decolonization.
[00:03:28 - 00:05:26] Tina Pearson
Yeah, tearing it apart. I hesitate to use these terms sometimes because then we kind of get into this. Oh, I know what that means. And then we're not actually really thinking about it. But that, that untethering from just the depth. I mean, it took hundreds of years for us to get to this place that we're really fucking up and so much disruption. You know, like I mentioned, I'm a first generation. My ancestry is all very north, northern Scandinavia, northern Poland, Russia, Belarus. And so I'm a first generation North American, first generation English speaker, first generation city dweller, first generation post-secondary education, you know. And I think that there are so many different backgrounds and ways that we have come here that we're coming into this place, like how we know each other, that I think that's just really important beyond the, oh, I'm a. Whatever those credentials are that we tend to use when we're applying for grants. So that's. I think I'm. I've been focusing more on those thoughts as I do any kind of work and I've been finding that to be. It's really the place where I feel it's a lot more comfortable sort of evolving my thinking about all of this. You know, I mean, one of the biggest gifts you can give someone is to really truly, deeply listen to them. And similarly to a place. But I also more like whenever a place like this, the gift of being able to listen to, you know, it's a gift that we can be here attending with and listening with this person. So not so much a listening to a listening with as this place is listening with us listening.
[00:05:26 - 00:05:43] Claude Schryer
Well, the notion of being listened to is relatively new to me. Even though I've been listening all my life, it's only the last few years I go, okay, of course they're listening to me and I'm making all this racket or I'm being disrespectful in certain spaces. So, you know, you learn.
[00:05:43 - 00:07:08] Tina Pearson
You learn. Yes. Yeah. And I think that, that, I mean, I was thinking the other day about the din of talking. I was in a. I can't remember what it was. It was some forum focus group on art and climate and thinking about this din of how we mitigate our actions, our impact. And it. I was really wishing for pining for more of a listening, a stopping and just listening. I think a lot of the, they're all good, but a lot of the initiatives that I've heard about are keeping that modernity that we talked about earlier, keeping the same systems like we're giving concerts, we're touring, we're doing, you know, we're doing. We're still doing the same things that are part of the constructs that got us here.
[00:07:09 - 00:07:19] Claude Schryer
So I'm thinking they're the greater good in many ways. They are good. You know, But I hear you. I hear what you're saying.
[00:07:19 - 00:13:48] Tina Pearson
Yeah. I mean, I think if we're asking. We're asking so many millions of people to not have their jobs in the oil sector, in the forestry sector, and all of the different, to change their lives. So fundamentally we need to look at how. It's not that much different. I think that there's a. I believe there's a need to solve. Just pause and just look at how we got here and think about, are there ways that my practice and the context in which I practice might be doing harm? If is where I'm putting my body supporting something that is part of the same construct, it might not be. I mean, it might not be cutting down the tree, it might not be. It's. It's a frat, but it's part of the same mind. It's the mind that's the problem. It's the construct of how we've got here that's the problem. Not the actual things as much. Right. So how can we as artists, you know, we're not inventing solar batteries. We're not, you know, we're not doing those things. But how can we, in our communities where we are in our places, listen with the places and think about how we might be of benefit in those places in ways that go beyond the construct of, say, the concert? There's so many ways that we can redefine being a sound practitioner in our communities with passing, you know, marking things that are important, helping people grieve. You know, there's so many ways of doing this that don't involve the ways that need us to tour, for example, or make CDs. That tearing down modernity, untethering ourselves from those things, I think we just… I don't know what the answer is, but I think we need that we need to have the courage to take a break. Okay, let's just pause and think about how we're doing this and what is it that we're doing. And there's so many brilliant creative people as you know, you know, in the fields that we're in. And I think that if there was time and space supported time and space, you know, over a number of years, I think it would really be. It would really shift things. Even with the practices that I've done with deep listening practices, with sound walks, the work, all the different kinds of works that a lot of us have done, there are so many ways of attending and listening to places and to each part of the place. And so when I come Here I always do some kind of listening practice in that way where I'm sensing the ground, I'm sensing the ancestries of all of the trees in the place, all of the vegetation of the place, you know, going through generations. Ancestries of people, the residues of ways of listening here, the residues of my own blood, ancestry and DNA and what I'm bringing to listening that might be filtering all of that. And so I find that practice, it's just informing what I do to have that grounded, rooted list relationship with place here, but also just wherever I go, as a way to maybe contemplate being more of service rather than taking. I think it's, you know, compelling to think about taking sounds or taking experiences from here, taking them out then into the digital world or a gallery space, you know, and I'm. I really. I'm, you know, I like to do that. I'm also thinking, how does that. Does that benefit this tree right here that we're standing in front of? We need to stop. We just need to stop and listen differently. I agree with you about that. Artists have a role, and maybe opportunity isn't such a bad word if we think about it a little bit openly. And I think that the ways that we have been practicing. I know I'm repeating myself a lot here, but I really do believe the ways we've been practicing need to shift. We need to first stop and listen. We need to listen to place. We need to listen to how the indigenous communities of a place listen, what's needed there, what does the land need? And I think that a way will come after we have that process, a supported process that may be facilitated in different ways. It's going to be different in each place where. I mean, I hesitate to jump on the bandwagon of art's more important than ever until artists can pull back a little bit from. I sense a little bit. I mean, I hate to say that, but I sense a little bit of kind of a privilege, of we're artists and we should be supported. I'm not sure.
[00:13:49 - 00:13:50] Claude Schryer
Entitlement.
[00:13:50 - 00:13:52] Tina Pearson
Okay, I didn't want to use that word.
[00:13:53 - 00:13:54] Claude Schryer
It's a real word.
[00:13:54 - 00:14:58] Tina Pearson
Yeah, I know it is. I just feel hesitant to use it, but, you know, because it's a bit of a diss. And I'm not. I'm not. I mean, I've been part of that. I've received grants. I haven't applied for a grant or received any funding for a number of years. Just intentionally, you know, and it makes it difficult for an independent artist. I'M not affiliated with any schools or anything. So it's like, okay, how do I do this outside of that model? But I think that. I do think that until. Until all of us can take that moment, that pause, and actually look at everything, what our practice is, I'm not sure it's just causing more harm. I think these prescriptive ways that artists kind of will come into communities, they aren't listening. I think there needs to be much more just listening, listening with community, before artists say, this is what we're going to do here.