Lecture on Nothing is a recording of John Cage’s original text (of the same title) as read by a deaf performer. According to Cage, silence may operate as a positive frame through which to appreciate non-musical sounds and to heighten the experience of listening: by integrating silence into his compositions,

Cage sought to allow sounds of the world into the musical experience. Appropriating Cage’s text, this work aims to further explore silence as a complex signifier by relating us to questions of deafness and non-normative forms of hearing. In doing so, the work also considers the act of speech, and the notion of being heard, fundamental to forms of recognition, and how silence is also figures within a politics of listening. From an open space of democratic listening to forms of disciplinary power, silence and understandings of the able ear can be heard to orient the hearing world in particular ways. BRANDON LABELLE is an artist, writer and theorist living in Berlin.