on deep listening
in 2026!
I’m in my high school biology class, it’s 2009. My teacher rolls in a clunky tv while a student shuts off the lights. Uma Thurman and Ethan Hawke star in Gattaca (1997), a dystopic sci-fi film set in a world where destiny is determined by eugenics. Ethan’s character has a wish he can’t fulfill because of his genes, he finds a way around.
It’s now 2025, I’m in a classroom where the kids are asked to write a persuasive essay on reproductive technology with this article as their reference - “Genetically Engineered Babies are banned. Tech Titans are trying to make one anyway” Wall Street Journal.
The baby they’re working on will be born in 2026, February.
This new year feels different. The rate of how quickly we’re technologically advancing feels faster than I can really comprehend. I wonder if our ancient society is ending? or maybe beginning?
gianfranco gorgoni, robert smithson’s spiral jetty, rozel point, great salt lake, utah, 1970
My skepticism towards AI and virtual reality shift after I attend an experimental noise show in a warehouse near the Gowanus Canal. The surrealist nature of noise and punk make me feel most curious about the way sound can advance our understanding of peace & suffering.
Andre Breton’s Manifesto of Surrealism (1924) points to the reclamation of imagination when embracing avante-garde ideas.
”Surrealism asserts that our complete nonconformism clearly enough so that there can be no question of translating it.”
No question of translating our shadows and needs.
Joan Miró (1893-1983), La chanteuse mélancolique, 1955.
In Quantum Listening by Pauline Oliveras (1932-2016) - she shares with excitement, what can happen to sound and our senses when we embrace new technologies. Listening in a way that feels ancient - like in the japji sahib - suni-ai dookh paap kaa naas - where deep listening cures all. Listening in a way that is quantum, into the broader energetic fields of existence.
The 4 of cups comes to mind, a card about tunnel vision. The card shows a person defeated on the ground staring at 3 cups, empty. While a 4th cup appears behind them from the sky. A cup that their conscious mind cannot see. All it takes is an open mind to feel its presence.
Is deep listening what connects us to this ‘extended’ knowledge?
I leave you all with some ambient sound, to inspire deep listening.
Happy new year, welcome to 2026.
xx
Jakari Wing