The Takeaway is an ongoing project that has been running since 2020 and takes different forms of listening to urban surroundings, from clandestine eavesdropping to conducting workshops and listening walks. Listening platforms that have been created within the project—a headset, individual and collective listening practices—have the ability to activate listening and enable real-time processing of listening in an urban environment.

As a part of the NEXT 2024 festival, there was a presentation of the Takeaway project and a soundwalk with a small group of people. The participants were using the invented headset serving as a mobile tool that activates listeners’ attention, and alters their experience of the site-specific auditory situation and atmosphere. The headset which allows the listener to manipulate and “play” with the live sound environment around them, blurring the boundaries between listening and composing, between performer and audience.

Martin Hurych is an artist and curator living and working in The Hague (NL) and Lubná (CZ). His work oscillates between the media of sound art and architecture, based primarily on reflections on the character of the specific site. The artist is known for a certain amount of exaggeration and warm humor, but at the same time he is sensitive to social problems, which is an issue he critically draws attention to with his works.

The video is produced by A4 as part of New Perspectives for Action, a project by Re-Imagine Europe, co-funded by the European Union and supported using public funding by Slovak Arts Council and Bratislava City Foundation. The video was created also by volunteers, as part of a project supported by the European Solidarity Corps program.

Video: Daniel Kazankov & Michal Vasiľ & Debora Pastirčáková & Paula Díaz & Eduarda Palmeira
Interview: Anete Bužoka