Quantum Listening: Sonic Architectures

Inspired by composer Pauline Oliveros’ manifesto for listening as activism, Quantum Listening explores the everyday phenomena of the sonic as a realm of healing and radical transformation rooted in musicianship. Through open conversations, screenings, and listening sessions, the series acts as a soundboard that mixes our dialogues and amplifies our curiosities about the world around us.

Join us for an open conversation on the worlds created through sound and architecture’s impact on one another with Jerald Cooper, Andrew Thomas Huang, and Evan Ifekoya, moderated by Tiffany E. Barber.

Dr. Tiffany E. Barber is a prize-winning, internationally-recognized scholar, curator, and critic whose writing and expert commentary appears in top-tier academic journals, popular media outlets, and award-winning documentaries. Her work spans abstraction, dance, fashion, feminism, film, and the ethics of representation, focusing on artists of the Black diaspora working in the United States and the broader Atlantic world. Her latest curatorial project, a virtual, multimedia exhibition for Google Arts and Culture, examines the value of Afrofuturism in times of crisis. Dr. Barber is currently Assistant Professor of African American Art at the University of California-Los Angeles as well as curator-in-residence at the Delaware Contemporary. Prior to joining the faculty at UCLA, she was Assistant Professor of Africana Studies and Art History at the University of Delaware. She has completed fellowships at ArtTable, the Delaware Art Museum, the University of Virginia’s Carter G. Woodson Institute for African-American and African Studies, and the Getty Research Institute. Dr. Barber is the recipient of the Smithsonian’s 2022 National Portrait Gallery Director’s Essay Prize.

Jerald “Coop” Cooper is a Cincinnati-native, and founder of Things We've Made, a multidisciplinary language agency. With a diverse range of experiences and accomplishments, Jerald has carved a unique path throughout his career. From opening a sneaker shop, to managing audio engineer Young Guru, and discovering, signing and producing with musician Ama Lou. In December 2019, he returned to his hometown of Cincinnati and began a personal exploration of the profound connection between architecture and black culture. By creating Hood Century (@hoodmidcenturymodern) he unknowingly sparks a cultural preservation movement. Revered as the most comprehensive digital representation of Black Modernism, Hood Century emphasizes the rich and nuanced narratives that encapsulate black culture in the modern era and beyond.

Andrew Thomas Huang is a visual artist, writer and director who crafts hybrid fantasy worlds and mythical dreamscapes. A Grammy-nominated music video director, Huang is best known for his collaborations with Björk, FKA twigs and Thom Yorke among others. Huang is also recognized for his work in narrative film and TV having directed an episode of Terence Nance’s Random Acts of Flyness Season 2 on HBO. Huang has also received support from Sundance and Film Independent for his upcoming feature film TIGER GIRL. His work has been commissioned by and exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art, NY, The Sydney Opera House and the Museum of Contemporary Art, LA. Inspired by his queer Chinese heritage, Huang’s work mines the unconscious realms to blend technology, mysticism, future folklore and queer spirituality.

Evan Ifekoya is an interdisciplinary artist whose work in community organizing, installation, performance, sound, text and video is an extension of their calling as a spiritual practitioner. Strategies of space holding through architectural interventions, ritual, sound and workshops enable them to make a practice of living in order not to turn to despair. They established the collectively run and QTIBPOC (queer, trans*, intersex, black and people of color) led Black Obsidian Sound System (B.O.S.S.) in 2018. Upcoming presentations include immersive and site specific installations for Lagos Biennial, ICA VCU and MAK Los Angeles (2024). They have presented exhibitions, moving image and performances across UK, Europe and Internationally, most recently: ARoS Denmark (2024), Guest Artist Space Lagos (2023), a solo exhibition at Migros Museum, Zurich and a moving image commission with LUX in collaboration with University of Reading (2022); Herbert Art Gallery and Museum as nominees of the Turner Prize (with B.O.S.S. 2021); Gus Fischer New Zealand (2020); De Appel Netherlands (2019) and Gasworks London (2018).

This program is organized by Justen Leroy, Director of Public Programs and Community Outreach, with Alitzah Oros, Public Programming Associate, the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles.