Nest – Listening as Collective Practice with pantea and others
Published
BEK invites artists, musicians and researchers for a gathering, exploring listening as a way of relating to environments, communities, and more-than-human worlds. The gathering is developed and conveyed by sound artist pantea, with contributions from Carolyn Rosten, Mehdi Torkaman, Amber Ablett, Associació So, Radio alHara – راديو الحارة, and Jiennagoahti.
August 18–21
Tuesday, 18 August: 12:00–13:00 and 16:00–17:00
Wednesday,19 August: 16:00–18:00
Thursday, 20 August: 15:30–18:00
Friday, 21 August: 19:00-20:00
BEK, C. Sundts gate 55, Floor 9, and online. See the detailed programme below for more information.
The seminar is open to artists, musicians, researchers, and anyone interested in sound, listening, and collective forms of inquiry. Sign up here to join.
Rather than presenting a fixed, mono-author programme, the gathering unfolds through a series of workshops, presentations, walks, shared tea and listening situations, where invited artists, researchers and local practitioners become collaborators in an evolving process of inquiry.
At the heart of the gathering is Nest, pantea´s ongoing artistic and curatorial practice that approaches listening as a way of making space with others. Inspired by a recent conversation between Pantea Armanfar and fellow writers Amber Ablett, Ren Loren Britton, T.L. Cowan, Anna Ramos, Jas Rault, Carol Stampone and Rehana Zaman, “Nest, Rest, Refusal” (forthcoming, Re-Imagine Europe, 2026), the gathering explores what it might mean to nest collectively, attending to rest, refusal and hospitality as active practices of being together.
Programme
Tuesday, 18 August: Sensing the Living World
The gathering begins with building a listening nest (nest-streambox), exploring how environmental data and bioacoustic monitoring can become shared, embodied forms of listening rather than systems of passive observation.
12:00–13:00 Open Studio and nest building
An informal presentation of the prototype by pantea at BEK. Participants are invited to make their own nests and DIY streamboxes while contributing ideas to the evolving project.
You are welcome to stay at BEK until the presentation. A light lunch will be provided.
16:00–17:00 Listening to Nature
Presentation by researcher Carolyn Rosten (Norwegian Institute for Nature Research / NINA, online with in-person gathering at BEK).
How can listening help us understand the health of ecosystems? Carolyn Rosten presents her research using bioacoustics and AI to monitor biodiversity, drawing on examples ranging from bird migration between Spain and Finnmark to salmon aquaculture, whales and insects.
The presentation is followed by a conversation led by pantea, bringing artistic and environmental humanities perspectives into dialogue with scientific approaches to sensing, monitoring and ecological data.
Join online:
Join Zoom Meeting
Meeting ID: 874 0589 4353
Passcode: 685563
The presentation can also be followed in person at BEK.
Wednesday, 19 August: Listening with Jiennagoahti
16:00–18:00 Nest Recipes
Workshop by Mehdi Torkaman at BEK
Through zine-making and simple bird-feeder construction using recycled materials, participants explore everyday practices of hospitality, knowledge-sharing and collective making. Together they develop “nest recipes” that become part of the residency’s growing archive.
Thursday, 20 August: Attuning and Silence(s)
The nest-streambox is installed at Jiennagoahti, where live listening continues throughout the day. Visitors are welcome to spend time in the listening lodge, while an online radio stream makes the project accessible remotely. The zines produced the previous day will offer prompts and listening exercises for visitors.
15:30 Meeting point
Fløibanen lower station. Walk to Jiennagoahti together from Fløibanen Upper Station. Accessible by foot, a 10 minute walk from the Fløibanen Upper Station.
16:00–17:00 Soft Armour
Workshop by Amber Ablett at Jiennagoahti
Continuing her ongoing research into the armour we wear to protect our softness, Amber Ablett leads a participatory workshop exploring how moments of introduction and encounter can become spaces for gently undoing the structures that shape identity and belonging.
Participants are invited to record a short sound from their morning before arriving (a simple phone recording is sufficient).
17:00–18:00 Tea and closing gathering
Hosted by pantea at Jiennagoahti.
Friday, 21 August: Online Reflection
19:00 Bergen / 20:00 Bethlehem / 18:00 London
) listening room (#43
on Radio Alhara
As part of the ongoing ) listening room ( series on Radio Alhara, mort drew, co-founder of Associació So, will live-mix sounds from the Nest stream at Jiennagoahti, reflecting on the residency through live listening, nest recipes and conversations that understand silence as a generative space.
The session takes place in the Radio Alhara chatroom and is open to anyone wishing to join remotely.
ABOUT PARTICIPANTS
pantea
pantea is a cultural worker, creator, and writer engaging with how sounds translate ecological connections, collaborative survival, and the unheard. Their experience spans listening, walking, writing, cooking, and creating things, connections, and forms of hospitality. More recently, they have been working on ways of connecting struggles across different spheres within their praxis. They are involved in the Khamoosh community, dedicated to archiving Iranian sonic heritage through the sounds of everyday life, and the Active Listeners Club music label. They are currently pursuing a practice-based PhD in Music at City, St George’s, University of London. Their work has been performed and exhibited internationally and they are passionate about wetlands and plants, especially the Sundew.
Amber Ablett
Amber Ablett (she/her) is an artist and writer based in Vestlandet, Norway. Using performance, text, sound and re-enactment, her work looks at the importance of belonging to how we be together, with a focus on how our society shapes, reflects, controls and limits our multifaceted identities.
Ablett uses her own stories of generational migration and Afro-European descent, as starting points to create a space for questioning, communality and critical thinking; she is interested in how we learn about ourselves through learning about other people and the conflict between our internal and perceived sense of home.
Stepping away from spectacle, Ablett often uses workshops and gatherings as an alternative to normative exhibition frameworks.
Carolyn Rosten
Carolyn Rosten is a researcher at the Norwegian Institute for Nature Research (NINA). Her work explores how bioacoustics, AI and environmental sensing can support biodiversity monitoring and ecological research. Drawing on a background in ecology and conservation, she develops acoustic approaches to understanding wildlife and ecosystem change.
Mehdi Torkaman
Mehdi Torkaman (b. 1987 / مهدی ترکمان) is a PhD candidate at the Greenhouse Center for Environmental Humanities, where his research examines stories about electricity and fuel in Norwegian popular culture. Outside of academia, he anchors his research in everyday life and local landscapes through a passion for growing food and the attentive practice of childcare.
mort drew
mort drew is a sound artist and creative technician working on flat listening and collective broadcasting through experimental ecological radio practices. Their work explores ephemerality, activist radio, and alternative modalities of being with one another, working primarily with live sonic materials.
Through residencies, exhibitions, and workshops, they create networks for sonic exchanges that challenge traditional broadcasting hierarchies using the live radio space as a conduit for anti-colonial and anti-capitalist solidarities and strategies.
mort is co-founder of Associació So (Sound Association) a new sound art collective based in Catalunya, co-director of the artist cooperative Soundcamp and founder of Trans Activist Radio Group. They release experimental ambient electronic music under the name gravemere.
Jiennagoahti
Jiennagoahti (Listening Lodge) is a public artwork dedicated to listening, situated on Torfjellet in the Bergen mountains. It was initiated by artist Elin Már Øyen Vister in dialogue with Sámi artist and architect Joar Nango, and realised in collaboration with Lydgalleriet Bergen, Ole Muosát / Sámihouse AS, and Bergen Sámi Association.
Radio alHara – راديو الحارة
Radio alHara – راديو الحارة is a communal radio station/programme/project that began in Bethlehem and Ramallah, and aims to extend to other places in Palestine and throughout the world, with programming broadcasted in their original languages, including Arabic, English, French, Chinese et al. Radio al Hara is an open platform for listening, adding, discussing and chatting, meant to connect people through a collective space that is open and accessible to everyone around the world.
Accessibility
BEK’s space unfortunately is not wheelchair accessible. Please send us an email at bek@bek.no if you’re using a wheelchair, and we’ll do our best to facilitate your needs. Our space has all gender toilet facilities. Service dogs are welcome. We also provide the option of a quiet room.
The project is part of New Perspectives for Action; a project by Re-Imagine Europe, co-funded by the European Union.
Image: photo: Albert Gironès