Notations for Living is a series of live listening and sound sessions held across various locations in Darat al Funun during January and February. The sessions will explore themes of palimpsestic temporalities and sonic hauntings, positioning sound as a medium of resistance and connection. Featuring works by musicians and sound artists, each session invites audiences to engage in the act of listening as a political, spiritual, and communal practice, with the potential to open pathways for reimagining how we relate to one another and to the world we inhabit.

At its core, the project centers sound as a powerful assertion of life—resisting subjugation and violence while fostering enduring connections to history, place, and memory. Participants are encouraged to reflect on sound’s relationship to major political events and upheavals, examining its role in resonating with historical moments and carrying their energy into possible futures.

The first session begins with Halim El Dabh’s It’s Dark and Damp at the Front (1949), written and performed in Cairo in response to the Nakba of 1948. We will listen to El Dabh’s work, an experimental piece conveying both hope and despair, and consider its repercussions for the current moment.

The session will be in Arabic. To register, please fill in the form here.

Toleen Touq is a curator, cultural producer and facilitator working between Toronto, Canada and Amman, Jordan. In Amman, she is co-founding director of Spring Sessions (2014-ongoing), a yearly residency program that brings together artists, researchers and cultural practitioners in a collaborative and experiential learning environment that is fueled by responsiveness to place and deep curiosity. She co-initiated and co-curated The River Has Two Banks (2012-2017), a multi-disciplinary artistic platform that addressed the historical, political and spatial relations between Jordan and Palestine. In Toronto, she was artistic director (2018-2022) of SAVAC, a nomadic artist-run center dedicated to presenting and developing the work of marginalized and racialized artists. She co-initiated Ways of Attuning (2021-2023) to study intimate and expansive curatorial practice with a group of participants across Turtle Island. In 2024, she guest curated the second edition of Greater Toronto Art triennial for the Museum of Contemporary Art Toronto. Her writings have been published with Ibraaz, Sternberg Press, A Prior, Manifesta Journal and others.