Sonic (Dys)tonic

BACKGROUND "Listening is often tuning us to the interplay of meaningful layers that constitute the world bridging the seen and unseen, foreground and background, things and bodies ...listening... draw(s) out the underheard into greater volume" (LaBelle, 2018). This research brings the practice of diary writing to LaBelle's practice of listening. We employ these methodologies of both listening (to the 'external' environment) and writing (the 'internal' self) as a way to 'attune to' the sonic world of the pandemic, to hear the nuances and interplay of individual and collective experiences in the time of isolation. CONTRIBUTION Sonic (Dys)tonic is an assemblage of 8 audio collages, embedded within text. As an audible diarological response to isolation under Covid-19 it asks how we, as researchers, can better understand the changing world through the "auditory knowledge" gained by listening to the sounds of the environment around us and 'bringing the seen and unseen' to bear affectively upon the audience. It exemplifies collaborative approaches to practice-led research in its innovative mix of methodologies for developing, collectively, new multi-modal vocabularies for emergent situations. This project extends our practice-as-research collective through its exploration of how artful approaches to everyday life can reorient and support us to adapt to crisis and change SIGNIFICANCE This peer reviewed work is unique in offering a multi-layered, scholarly approach to the ways in which creative works are emerging in a global pandemic. It is significant in its testing of themes, content and ideas about listening and noticing. As the editor notes, this work "captures a fluid and fragmented collective soul of this pandemic experience [...] The parts don't simply fit as evolve together and flow, a playful and expressive tapestry of these times" (Colbert 2020).