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Who Cares? : An Ethical Practice of Listening

Hylling Diers, Tanja LU (2026) In Doctoral studies and research in fine and performing arts 41.
Abstract
This artistic research project asks: How can a care-oriented artistic practice based on listening facilitate the shaping of lived experience into artistic material? The question has developed through a research process spanning 2020–2026 and through three artistic projects: My Deer Hunter (2020), Stille slag (Quiet Beats) (2021) and Lyttekor (Listening Choir) (2024–25). Each project takes lived experience as its point of departure and explores different ways of meeting, listening to and working with people who share experiences of war, incarceration and fertility treatment.
Throughout the research, listening has emerged as my principal artistic tool. I understand listening as an embodied practice: a way of paying... (More)
This artistic research project asks: How can a care-oriented artistic practice based on listening facilitate the shaping of lived experience into artistic material? The question has developed through a research process spanning 2020–2026 and through three artistic projects: My Deer Hunter (2020), Stille slag (Quiet Beats) (2021) and Lyttekor (Listening Choir) (2024–25). Each project takes lived experience as its point of departure and explores different ways of meeting, listening to and working with people who share experiences of war, incarceration and fertility treatment.
Throughout the research, listening has emerged as my principal artistic tool. I understand listening as an embodied practice: a way of paying attention with the whole body and to what may be sensed, felt and perceived beyond the audible. By developing listening as a practice for dramaturgical thinking and doing, I have explored how lived experiences can move from personal stories into artistic material through acts of collective creation.

The research shows that care-oriented listening can support trust, agency and empowerment, while also demanding responsibility, openness and continued involvement beyond the performance itself. Aftercare, longer processes and supportive institutional and funding structures are therefore important parts of an ethical artistic practice. The research has also changed my own artistic role, from dramaturg to co-leader and facilitator, and has given me an embodied understanding of the vulnerability involved in sharing lived experience. The project proposes listening as an artistic practice of care: a way of staying attentive to others, to oneself and to the relations that make art possible.
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author
supervisor
organization
publishing date
type
Thesis
publication status
published
subject
keywords
Listening, dramaturgy, Documentary Theatre, care, deep listening, speculation, speculative dramaturgy, aftercare
in
Doctoral studies and research in fine and performing arts
volume
41
publisher
Malmö Faculty of Fine and Performing Arts, Lund University
ISSN
1653-8617
ISBN
978-91-88409-67-6
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
688ae24e-241c-4437-ac44-64bd888aa119
date added to LUP
2026-10-02 08:55:31
date last changed
2026-10-02 11:45:03
@misc{688ae24e-241c-4437-ac44-64bd888aa119,
  abstract     = {{This artistic research project asks: How can a care-oriented artistic practice based on listening facilitate the shaping of lived experience into artistic material? The question has developed through a research process spanning 2020–2026 and through three artistic projects: <i>My Deer Hunter</i> (2020), Stille slag <i>(Quiet Beats)</i> (2021) and <i>Lyttekor (Listening Choir) </i>(2024–25). Each project takes lived experience as its point of departure and explores different ways of meeting, listening to and working with people who share experiences of war, incarceration and fertility treatment.<br/>Throughout the research, listening has emerged as my principal artistic tool. I understand listening as an embodied practice: a way of paying attention with the whole body and to what may be sensed, felt and perceived beyond the audible. By developing listening as a practice for dramaturgical thinking and doing, I have explored how lived experiences can move from personal stories into artistic material through acts of collective creation.<br/><br/>The research shows that care-oriented listening can support trust, agency and empowerment, while also demanding responsibility, openness and continued involvement beyond the performance itself. Aftercare, longer processes and supportive institutional and funding structures are therefore important parts of an ethical artistic practice. The research has also changed my own artistic role, from dramaturg to co-leader and facilitator, and has given me an embodied understanding of the vulnerability involved in sharing lived experience. The project proposes listening as an artistic practice of care: a way of staying attentive to others, to oneself and to the relations that make art possible.<br/>}},
  author       = {{Hylling Diers, Tanja}},
  isbn         = {{978-91-88409-67-6}},
  issn         = {{1653-8617}},
  keywords     = {{Listening; dramaturgy; Documentary Theatre; care; deep listening; speculation; speculative dramaturgy; aftercare}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  month        = {{10}},
  publisher    = {{Malmö Faculty of Fine and Performing Arts, Lund University}},
  series       = {{Doctoral studies and research in fine and performing arts}},
  title        = {{Who Cares? : An Ethical Practice of Listening}},
  url          = {{https://lup.lub.lu.se/search/files/262195174/Who_Cares_v16a_digital.pdf}},
  volume       = {{41}},
  year         = {{2026}},
}