Conversations With Strangers
In Spring 2021 emerging young artists from The Door worked with a multi-disciplinary team of professionals to create participatory installations in shared spaces. Originally, it was called Listening Project, and later turned into Listening Lab.
We invited passersby to converse, reflect, and connect with us by asking a simple question:
Since March 2020, how has your life changed?
"Last year, I used to get in so much trouble. I used to be a really bad child: Getting arrested, always getting the phone calls home from school. I was really bad. And over the year I really found myself, and that I don’t need to act out, because there’s really no sense in it, and now I’m a different person."
Washington Square Park
New York, NY
7/14/21
"I got diagnosed with anxiety, which I kind of knew I had, but it's weird when you're told you actually have anxiety... At first I was super stressed out about it. Cause you don't really want to accept it.
And I thought with my parents, it was also weird because they kind of didn't want to accept that either. None of us wanted to, and it was a big problem."
Washington Square Park
New York, NY
7/14/21
"I feel like, like it happened for a reason. Everything happens for a reason. So I feel like I just got to embrace it now. Just step into it and do what I need to do. And I just want to help people and bring joy and happiness and help people."
St. Nicholas Park
New York, NY
6/23/21
"I've moved. I wasn't in a very good house. Uh, well, I, wasn't in a very good space before and now I'm in a much better place with really good people. I think that I'm happy to be in a job, but, there's this huge thing going on with the stock market that people are talking about, and there's a chance that it can change people's lives with the money you could get from it and Bitcoin.
So I'm getting into that and then getting my brother into it as well. We're really hoping that some good things come from it."
Spring Street Park
New York, NY
6/09/21
"No, one's going to be happy for you. So just live your life. I've noticed that, especially in the past year, no one wants to see you win.
Like, I thought nobody wants to see you lose, but nobody wants to see you win either."
Coney Island
Brooklyn, NY
7/4/21
"We missed the human element. I don't have friends. All my classmates, none of them are my friends.
I didn't know anything about them. We finished the whole semester. No communication, no email communication, no telephone communication. I don't have anyone to ask. If I have some challenge, you know, someone from my classmates, has a better knowledge, give me some feedback, opinion. Give me some direct.
That part is gone. You see what I'm saying? Everything is by yourself. And you feel like: You see them, but you don't know them."
Jackson Heights
Queens, NY
6/30/21
"A lot of people are pretty much paying attention to the Asian hate and the thing is that's always been going on. And the fact that, it's a mainstream thing to know that. is such a frustrating thing because people are like, 'now you guys know, and now you guys understand what it's like to be a minority'.
It's like, no, we've always understood you. It's like for you, it's the first time that you're knowing we're a minority, where you thought of us as not being minorities. So it's pretty frustrating."
Prospect Park
Brooklyn, NY
6/19/21
"It's been a very I don't know year"
Washington Square Park
New York, NY
7/14/21
"No matter what your parents are people as well. And once you understand that they are people, you start understanding that they have struggles, but they had you. So they were able to keep pushing forward and make sure that you are right. So I'm going to make sure that, I know I'm going to pass on my troubles to my kids, but at the same time... they're going to understand that I love them."
Washington Square Park
New York, NY
6/16/21
Founders Lab
November 13-14, 2021
Listening Lab designed and exhibited their first show at Founders Lab, a maker space in Brooklyn. It included audio, photos, video and participatory installations where guests could share their own stories and experiences.
If you'd like to bring Conversations With Strangers to your school, gallery, or venue please get in touch with us!
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The Whitney Museum of American Art
On March 18 Listening Lab had an exhibition at the Whitney Museum of American Art.
This exhibition was a culmination of Listening Lab's work to this point. A moving collection of audio, and visual materials from their time listening in shared space. Alongside these works, attendees were invited to share a story of their own during an interactive performance.
Exhibition
Conversations With Strangers
Exhibition
Conversations With Strangers
Exhibition
Process
Planning
Apr-May
Members from The Door apply to be co-creators in what will eventually become Listening Lab.
5 are chosen, and begin a projected 12 week program to learn experience design, team building, empathetic listening, and exhibition design.
6 workshops are put together by professionals from various fields to create a social practice and discourse training program.
Members begin meeting weekly with an executive coach to process their experience and focus their purpose.
The team starts operating as Listening Project 2021.
Listening
Jun-Aug
Every week, the team participates in workshops, plans outings in the 5 boroughs of NYC, and goes to chosen public spaces to listen to strangers at a table, recording what participants share.
Members continue Their coaching through the first few weeks of the Listening period.
Weekly workshops help to build leadership skills, philosophical understanding of purpose, listening/conversational ability, and technical knowledge of public art production.
Sharing
Sep-Nov
A database was made, and members of the team organize the collected materials: audio, video, and photos.
The team lands on Listening Lab as a name for the project/team.
The gathered materials were shared through exhibitions, workshops, and trainings.
Listening Lab Co-Founders
Fadwa Yousef
Mahfouz Soumare
Naomi Young
Benjamin Brown
Farhana Akter
Deena Ismail
Sarah Howard
Matt Chavez
Support Team
These individuals supported the creation of Listening Lab, through professional development, instruction, coaching, workshops, advising, conversation, design and production.
Tiffany Chan
Mindy Fullilove
Rei Chou
Dirk Leidig
Nickey Frankel
Jack Saul
Psychotherapist
Natalie Black