In 2023 Lawrence Abu Hamdan founded Earshot, the world’s first organisation using sound for the defence of human and environmental rights. Reflecting on its first year of operation, Abu Hamdan elaborated on the interrelations of art and activism and listening with politics. The presentation focused on his latest project Zifzafa and used it to explore the concept and the struggle for a sonic self-determination. The event began with a skill share led by Surveillance Resistance Lab, who introduced practical steps for pushing back against big tech surveillance.

Zifzafa is a video game simulation that seeks to safeguard the auditory life of the occupied Syrian Golan Heights against further acts of occupation and dispossession. For more about this project visit earshot.ngo/investigations/zifzafa.