Polythinking

POLYTHINKING is a major Liquid Architecture program exploring the potential of polyphony (=many voices), growing out of Polyphonic Social 2016 and 2017.  We apply the sonic concept of polyphony to social sound and social listening across multiple events and venues, embracing experimental pedagogies, installations, performance art, improvised music and partying.

We are all multiple. At any one time, a person is the sum of divergent forces, histories, narratives – we are many things to many people (especially ourselves). This means you are always already poly, you too contain multitudes. Contradiction, incoherence, uncomfortability, a refusal to read: what if the very things you thought were destabilising are actually a source of strength?

Polyphonic thinking doesn’t just mean the sound of many voices, all replete in their unique texture. It means, paradigmatically, listening differently – listening openly, embracing complexity, shifting codes and extending beyond collective comfort zones. Above all polythinking is about learning how to hold multiple truths at once, producing collaborative sound and listening – and applying that to thinking about how to move forward, together.

We are starting with the future because by figuring out where we want to be and working back from there we can start designing the today we need, instead of just accepting the today we have already.