KONTEJNER presents a two-day Deep Listening workshop led by musicologist and sound artist Nina Jukić. The workshop will be held on February 15 and 16, 2025, from 4 PM to 7 PM at the KONTEJNER space, Odranska 1/1. Participation is free, but the number of participants is limited to 12. To apply, please send a brief motivation for participating and your contact details to davorkabegovic@gmail.com by February 10, 2025. Participants are required to attend both days of the workshop, and prior musical experience is not necessary.

Deep Listening, an improvisational practice developed by American composer Pauline Oliveros (1932–2016), explores the difference between involuntary sound perception (hearing) and conscious sound engagement (listening). It involves movement exercises, sonic meditations, and group exercises, as well as focused listening to the sounds of everyday life, nature, personal thoughts, imagination, and dreams. Deep Listening cultivates heightened awareness of both external and internal soundscapes, encouraging experimentation, collaboration, and other creative skills essential for personal and societal growth.

Numerous Deep Listening workshops and the Deep Listening Certification Program have been organized since the 1980s in close collaboration with writer and theater director IONE (Pauline Oliveros' life partner) and choreographer and T'ai Chi instructor Heloise Gold. Today, Deep Listening continues to evolve as both a philosophy and practice through a growing international community of listeners.

In this workshop, participants will explore the fundamental ideas, exercises, and philosophy of Deep Listening through its three modalities: sound/sounding, movement, and dreaming/imagination. Deep Listening offers a framework for collective creation, improvisation, and experimentation—free and playful. It can serve as an excellent source of inspiration for personal artistic and pedagogical practices.

Participants can expect a relaxed atmosphere and, after the workshop, a deeper connection with both fellow participants and themselves. A welcome side effect is a sense of calm and grounding, as well as a fresh perspective on daily life.

The workshop will include classic Deep Listening exercises, movement practices, guided sonic meditations, performances of Pauline Oliveros' text scores, the "Extreme Slow Walk," small group discussions, exploration of listening in dreams/imagination, and more.

This workshop is intended for anyone interested in experiencing this form of group improvisational and meditative practice—no prior musical experience is required. Please come dressed in comfortable clothing and warm socks (exercises are done without shoes) and bring a water bottle.

If you have specific physical or other needs, please mention them in your application so the workshop can be adapted accordingly.

Nina Jukić (HR/AT)

Nina Jukić (Zagreb, 1985) is a composer, sound artist, and musicologist currently in her final semester studying electroacoustic and experimental music (ELAK) at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna (mdw). In 2024, she completed the certification program for teaching Deep Listening practice offered by the Center for Deep Listening at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in New York. She is the recipient of the phonoECHOES Award for sound art, improvisation, and experimental electronic music from the Austrian Composers’ Society (2023). She has participated in festivals such as Ars Electronica and shut up and listen!. She graduated in musicology from the University of Zagreb in 2010 (Academy of Music) and in English and Art History in 2012 (Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences). Since 2013, she has been living in Vienna and is the mother of two children.

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