Good Listener (Paperback)

Michael Ned Holte

ISBN 10: 1953189229 / ISBN 13: 9781953189226

Published by Sming Sming Books & Objects, 2026

About this Item

Paperback. Good Listener: Meditations on Music and Pauline Oliveros is a performance-in-writing of Oliveros's Sonic Meditation XXI--a text score in the form of a question: "What constitutes your musical universe?" Michael Ned Holte responds to this brief but expansive prompt with a daily meditation that focuses attention on the work of Oliveros--the revolutionary composer, feminist and queer icon, and Deep Listening theorist--but expands outward to consider the author's own evolving relationship to music and sound. As a performance that documents its own making, the text also serves as a reflection on time, memory, improvisation, silence, solitude, loss, friendship, teaching, visual art, taste, and material culture, among many other subjects summoned in its daily pursuit. "What constitutes your musical universe?" Michael Ned Holte responds to this text score in the form of a question by Pauline Oliveros. Good Listener is a daily meditation that focuses attention on the work of Oliveros--the revolutionary composer, feminist and queer icon, and Deep Listening theorist. Shipping may be from multiple locations in the US or from the UK, depending on stock availability.

Seller Inventory # 9781953189226

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Good Listener (Paperback)
• Publisher: Sming Sming Books & Objects
• Publication Date: 2026
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1953189229
• ISBN 13: 9781953189226
• Binding: Paperback
• Condition: new

About this title

Synopsis

Good Listener: Meditations on Music and Pauline Oliveros is a performance-in-writing of Oliveros's Sonic Meditation XXI—a text score in the form of a question: "What constitutes your musical universe?" Michael Ned Holte responds to this brief but expansive prompt with a daily meditation that focuses attention on the work of Oliveros—the revolutionary composer, feminist and queer icon, and Deep Listening theorist—but expands outward to consider the author's own evolving relationship to music and sound. As a performance that documents its own making, the text also serves as a reflection on time, memory, improvisation, silence, solitude, loss, friendship, teaching, visual art, taste, and material culture, among many other subjects summoned in its daily pursuit.

About the Author

Michael Ned Holte is a writer, curator, and faculty member in the art program at CalArts. His exhibition, how we are in time and space: Nancy Buchanan, Marcia Hafif, Barbara T. Smith, at the Armory Center for the Arts, Pasadena, was named by Hyperallergic as one of the top 50 exhibitions of 2022. His writing on art and culture has appeared in Afterall, Artforum, East of Borneo, Poetry, and X-TRA, among many other publications. He is the author of Bog Time, a pamphlet on the early tape and electronic music of Pauline Oliveros.