Material resistance: towards a politics of listening

This article seeks to address the question posed by art historian Petra Lange-Berndt, "What does it mean to give agency to the material, to follow the material and to act with the material?" Focusing on the notion of material resistance as a form of nonhuman agency, I argue for a politics of listening, in which certain modes of sonic art creative practice founded on listening have the potential to challenge the anthropocentric notions of mastery and control that have traditionally informed the relationship between the artist and the material. The sound recordings accompanying this article aim to realise ideas regarding material agency discussed in the text.