bell hooks, Pauline Oliveros, and Engaged Pedagogy

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Teaching is a performative act. And it is that aspect of our work that offers the space for change, invention, spontaneous shifts, that can serve as a catalyst drawing out the unique elements in each classroom. To embrace the performative aspect of teaching we are compelled to engage “audiences,” to consider issues of reciprocity. Teachers are not performers in the traditional sense of the word in that our work is not meant to be a spectacle. Yet it is meant to serve as a catalyst that calls everyone to become more and more engaged, to become active participants in learning. (Teaching to Transgress 12)

In our class [Gender and Representation in Art History], I was drawn to bell hooks’ writing for her comprehensive and practical analysis of social issues and their potential solutions. After reading Feminist Theory: From Margin to Center, I decided to explore her practice as a thinker and activist and her relation to Art and audience activation. This quote from hooks’ Teaching to Transgress: Education as the Practice of Freedom, frames her critical practice in  Artistic terms. If teaching is performative, can performance also be informed by education? Can non-performative Art function in an educational way, to move beyond spectacle? In the prevailing model of education in higher learning institutions, acceptable learning is based on a system of banking (Teaching 14). This means that ideas and knowledge are consumed by the student, stored, and spit back out within the context of the classroom. In this model, the teacher has virtually unchecked ideological power over the student (who is a passive entity in the transaction of knowledge), perpetuating power dynamics reminiscent of Michel Foucault- the teacher can both physically and ideologically surveille the classroom while the students have no choice but to remain silent and obedient. hooks argues that acquiring knowledge in this way is not the same as acquiring true knowledge. She emphasizes different ways of knowing that connect directly to lived experiences and physical realities of the students. Rather than imposing a single ideology or practice, she fosters a flexible learning community in which she and her students are equally committed to engaging in critical dialogue. It is this framework that I will explore engaged pedagogy in the Sonic Meditations and Deep Listening practice of Pauline Oliveros. Through her work and writing, she developed an engaged Artistic educational body of work that unites theory and practice in a way that activates the performance experience and the practice of freedom. 

Engaged pedagogy is difficult to define singularly because of its apparent contradictions and inherent fluidity. While its practice has lesson plans and desired outcomes, the learning is not hindered by digression. The teacher and student share equally in the educational work, but the teacher retains their power by creating and sustaining the environment necessary for this shared practice. However, the fundamental aspect of engaged pedagogy is attention. In order to move the student from a passive object of consumption to a subject with a body, mind, and lived experience, every participant (regardless of classroom hierarchy) must have a willingness to expand and extend their boundaries of attention. This awareness is both internal and external. Both teacher and student must be willing to extend their inner knowledge and also wider their external attention to the larger context beyond the classroom. Whether this context is a larger social structure, an institutional bias, a student’s experience, or something else entirely, the engaged classroom commits to interacting in both the inner and outer spheres.

In Software for People, Pauline Oliveros articulates similar archetypes of attention (which she defines as modes of human information processing): global and focal attention (185). She chooses to physically represent the relationship between the archetypes with a circle encompassing a dot in the center. Focal attention, represented by the dot, is a linear process. It is the orientation toward an object, state, or idea. Global attention is non-linear. It is “an awareness of environment: imaginary, memorized, or external, without the focus of detail” (Software 216). Within the two archetypes, attention is then organized by the five senses, with each sense having both an internal and external component. In her piece Three Strategic Options, these archetypes are laid bare. The score for the piece (a part of her Sonic Meditations) is as follows:

Listen together. When you are ready to begin choose an option. Return to listening before choosing another option. Options are to be freely chosen throughout the duration of the piece. The piece ends when all return to listening together. Options:

1. Sound before another performer.

2. Sound after another performer.

3. Sound with another performer.

If performing as a soloist, substitute sound from the environment for another performer. (Sounding the Margins 4)

By focusing solely on sound and a return to listening, Oliveros brings performers’ attention to the human and non-human bodies that surround them while retaining their own internal awareness. Each participant has complete autonomy in the internal decision to pick each option but the focus is on the outer experience. From the first sentence, Oliveros clearly directs participants toward global attention: “Listen together.” Then, only after establishing this global focus does the participant’s attention shift to internal with each self-selected option. While the text of this piece is fixed, there is an inherent flexibility and freedom in its language. It was developed only after “many trials with oral instructions given to many different people” (Sounding 120). By engaging in this dialogue with participants, she employs her theories of attention and listening to the development of her practice. In her own words: “I have redefined the responsibilities of the composer, the performer, and the listeners by asking that everyone share in the listening process- the gateway to creativity” (Sounding 60).

It is from this intentionality of language and oral practice of revision that the profound accessibility and power of her work stems. She chooses easy to understand words that take on immense meaning when in the context of her work. This meaning is not left up to the reader or performer to infer or interpret. In her writing and oral practice, she takes care to define each ‘technical’ word, no matter how commonplace. For instance, her differentiation of hearing and listening is paramount to a full understanding and experience of Three Strategic Options. “To hear is the physical means that enables perception. To listen is to give attention to what is perceived both acoustically and psychologically” (Deep Listening xxii). The practice of translating complex ideas into easily understood language is a revolutionary act.

In From Margin to Center, bell hooks talks about the problem of accessibility of feminist theory outside of academic circles. To retain a reputation as a professional academic, writers and Artists alike sometimes cater their work toward the academic community, rendering them inaccessible and misunderstood by those unfamiliar with the jargon of their discipline (111). If the primary concern of the feminist writer is feminist movement for all people, accessibility and understanding must be considered. Likewise, if the primary concern of the Artist is Artistic movement, accessibility must be considered. As hooks states, women deprived of access to modes of critical thought surrounding liberation leads them to become insecure about intellectual work and to fear new ideas (From Margin to Center 113). Oliveros’ experience in music education was one that prioritized the performance and appreciation of the music of the past. As a result, “most students do not realize that they have creative potential to make their own music” (Deep Listening xv). By creating her own accessible translations, Oliveros not only states that her work is for everybody, but she provides a framework that allows participants (regardless of musical skill) to develop their own creativity and musicality.

One of the origins of the struggle of accessibility and intellectualism is the prioritization of the experience of the mind over that of the body. For both hooks and Oliveros, creating opportunities to bring together the experiences of the body/mind into a unified whole form the core of their work. In hooks’ experience, her confrontation of the mind/body split began in college. She saw higher education as an opportunity to become self-actualized in knowledge and spirit. The reality of the university was not so nurturing. Through the banking system of education that most institutions adhere to, the student functions only as a mind in the classroom, a container for information (Teaching 9). The physical realities true to each person’s experience are not of educationally relevant. hooks’ engaged pedagogy emphasizes the value of treating all members of a classroom as whole, both body and mind. She argues that eros, the driving, natural passion and excitement of the body can be used to heal this divide. Here, eros is not used in the sexual sense, but rather as the force that drives our passion and desire to act (Teaching 126). Our natural passions for education are not something to be repressed in the classroom, they are a tool for inspiration. In this way, the body of the educator becomes more than a form behind a desk: it becomes an active participant in the learning as well as a tool to “invigorate discussion and excite the critical imagination” (Teaching 126).

In the introduction to her Sonic Meditations, Oliveros states openly that this body of work is meant to “erase the subject/object” dynamic of performance (Sonic Meditations 2). Each body in the performative experience (composer, performer, audience) is activated by the work. The composer is no longer a veiled entity with inherent power over the experience. The lines between performer and audience become fluid as their attentional patterns shift. Not only this, but the physical bodies within each group of the performative experience are activated through language. In Teach Yourself to Fly, Oliveros’ first Sonic Meditation, the instructions emphasize the natural functions of the body and allow space for the individual’s voice to come to the forefront.

Teach Yourself to Fly

Any number of persons sit in a circle facing the center. Illuminate the space with dim blue light. Begin by simply observing your own breathing. Always be an observer. Gradually allow your breathing to become audible. Then gradually introduce your voice, allow your vocal cords to vibrate in any mode which occurs naturally. Allow the intensity to increase very slowly. Continue as long as possible naturally, and until all others are quiet, always observing your own breath cycle.

Variation: Translate voice to an instrument. (Sonic Meditations 3)

In her own analysis of the work, the essential rhythm of the work is based on bio-rhythms, the spacing of an individual’s natural breath cycle. She first brings the unconscious rhythms of the body to conscious awareness. Once this awareness is established, time is given to remain in this attentional phase, “Always be an observer.” Then, by using the word “allow,” Oliveros continues the natural process established by the breath rhythm. She states, participants should make “no conscious manipulation” to produce a sound. “No sound is more desirable than another; all are accepted” (Software 154). By allowing the natural sound of the body to speak unadulterated, the work produces what Oliveros calls an intrinsic healing power. “Return[ing] the control of sound to the individual alone” within a group setting allows participants to place their bodies within a community of bodies and form an extended consciousness rooted in awareness and connection (Sonic Meditations 2).

After the Sonic Meditations, Oliveros began to develop what she would eventually call the Deep Listening practice. As with the development of the Sonic Meditation, many years of practice, transmission, and translation led to the formation of yet another praxis. Deep Listening takes a turn toward the personal and the metaphysical. In her typical fashion, Oliveros breaks Deep Listening into its component parts and defines each clearly. “Deep has to do with complexity and boundaries, or edges beyond ordinary or habitual understandings.” Conjoined with listening, Deep Listening is “learning to expand the perception of sounds to include the whole space/time continuum of sounds.” At its essence, Deep Listening’s focus is on the mind and the expansion of its awareness to the spiritual dimension (Deep Listening xxiii). The practice of Deep Listening takes many forms within its six categories: “energy work, bodywork, breath exercises, vocalizing, listening, and dreamwork.” The practice begins by calming the mind and bringing awareness to the body “to promote the appropriate attitude for extending receptivity” (Deep Listening 1). Once connection to the body is established, outer awareness is created through listening activities and privately explored in journal writing. These Listening Journals establish a soft boundary between private and public space. While moving from the public space of the listening activity, participant’s internal thoughts are brought into physical form “without censorship” (Deep Listening 18). This practice solidifies each participant’s lived experience and helps them develop their own individual perspective that can then be enacted and supported in group discussion later in the practice. If shared aloud, this practice strengthens the individual while also expanding the consciousness of the group.

When dealing with such diverse populations (“Anyone can practice Deep Listening”), it is important to cultivate a confidence in this inner space to represent the full humanity of the group more accurately (Deep Listening xxi). bell hooks applies the same logic to the classroom. Understanding the questions of “Who speaks? Who listens? And why?” are paramount when creating a space for transformative education (Teaching 31). In order to create a more democratic environment for critical discussion, hooks also uses journal writing to establish the value of each voice in the classroom. After writing individually about the material in the class, students are then required to share their writings with each other. Especially in multicultural settings, “To hear each other (the sound of different voices), to listen to one another, is an exercise in recognition. It also ensures that no student remains invisible in the classroom” (Teaching 31). This practice allows students and professors to attune to each individual, their experience, their body, and their language, creating an environment where shared consciousness can be established and deepened.

While the goals of the classroom and the Art gallery or concert hall are not necessarily the same, my practice has been moving away from the idea that Art is spectacle. In trying to develop a new concept of what Art can do, I have been attempting to form a theory to explore in practice. As shown in the work of both hooks and Oliveros, theory and practice are not separate. They inform each other and form simultaneously through experimentation, translation, and a willingness to listen. Using hooks’ engaged pedagogy and Oliveros’ Artistic expression of the same ideals as models of unified theory and practice, I am committed to finding new and accessible modes of expression that seek to educate, affirm humanity, and spark inspiration.

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hooks, bell. Feminist Theory: From Margin to Center. South End Press, 2000.

hooks, bell. Teaching to Transgress: Education as the Practice of Freedom. Routlege, 2014.

Oliveros, Pauline. Deep Listening: A Composer’s Sound Practice. iUniverse, Inc., 2005.

Oliveros, Pauline. Software for People: Collected Writings 1963-80. Smith Publications, 1984.

Oliveros, Pauline. “Sonic Meditations.” Sound Portraits, Smith Publications,

nwww.soundportraits.info/wpcontent/uploads/2019/06/Oliveros_Pauline_Sonic_Meditations_1974.pdf. Accessed 15

Dec. 2023.

Oliveros, Pauline. Sounding the Margins: Collected Writings, 1992-2009. Deep Listening, 2010.