Blank Noise is an art practice rooted in movement building to end gender-based violence. Our team is often multi-disciplinary. Our vocabularies may vary across disciplines, even if we share the goals and concerns.
Vocabulary names and shapes action. The vocabulary offers a vision and propels direction.
Blank Noise and its I Never Ask For It Mission iterate . welcome dissonance, towards arriving at another new question, and collectively learning from it.
What is the vision you walk in with, when you apply to work at Blank Noise? What kind of a workplace or practice is it?
This interview series with the past or present team is an invitation to reflect on our practice, social change and their location as a fellow action shero/theyro/ hero.
Q: In a world and workplace where potential employees seek verticals, and incentives and pursue growth in that nature; what has growth been for you at Blank Noise ?
Featuring Saanika amembal
I have been building the #INeverAskForItMission in varying capacities at Blank Noise, first as an Action Shero Intern (2020) and then as a Research Associate for the Campus Climates and Feminist Hashtag while assisting the director.
My journey at Blank Noise has offered me a space of, growth-growth of perspectives, growth of the capacity to listen, and a shift in consciousness. At Blank Noise I have built the capacity to not only listen to the testimonials of survivors but also intently listen to and connect with my own fears. Today, when I walk on a desolate road or relieve my experiences of harassment, I am able to create a safe space for myself and my dear ones by expressing my fears, processing them, and connecting with my dear ones who confide their experiences in me. This has given me the courage to say I NeverAskFor It, I deserve to be Akeli Awaraa Azaad wherever I go. By listening to myself I have learned to disconnect from the myth that I am in any way responsible for sexual remarks hurled at me by passers-by or any advances made at me.
The process of listening closely to testimonial bearers (including me) and myself has compelled me to question my social location as a student. Was I in the limelight because I adhered to heteronormative standards of dressing and being? Did this heteronormativity which has also shaped my experiences off-campus make me feel heard when I would express rebellion in and outside the classroom? Did I express rebellion because my privileges gave me the space to do so?
My questions grew and so did my self-awareness. I don’t hesitate to turn to myself, my privileges, my experiences of oppression, my fears, and my strengths. I hope this practice of turning inwards accompanies me for the rest of my life and I continue to embody a safe space of listening and having the courage to making myself be heard.
Growth at Blank Noise for me has also reflected in the more nuanced understanding of the term social change, its intangibility, its continuity, and its immeasurable impact. Blank Noise designs interventions such as raising garment testimonials or building the Meet To Sleep movement. For many of us, these are creative and accessible forms of protest. Since the intervention is what one is focused on, one is not completely aware of the process that precedes and succeeds the intervention. The process of making the decision to join a group of women in a park to sleep under the open skies, the process of voluntarily choosing to come out with lived experiences of harassment and find affirmation in a listening circle. I have come to understand that this very process can be seen as social change. I have learned that the term ‘change’ is tricky. Change means alteration. A ‘process’ can be an evolution, a state of becoming. My journey at Blank Noise has been a process of growth. Not to be a fleeting moment of ‘change’ but an evolution.
