My curiosity led me to discover the depths that can be reached through the act of listening. Deep listening is relevant for both fields I am active in: Conversations with experts about their research, and creating experiences with artists. It can even become generative listening – and when it does, new spaces are created, which we could not have imagined otherwise: spaces of learning, creating, and collaborative change. This type of listening does not happen only with our brains or ears.

It happens when we engage the entirety of the living beings we are – beings with bodies, voices, senses, etc. There is potential for more profound knowledge to emerge from a specific combination of disciplines, particularly by using embodied knowledge to conduct scientific research. Both academia and the performing arts are realms of research, but they rely on completely different skills, tools, methods and practices. It is high time to blend the two and see what each can learn from the other and what will come out of the encounter.