Ultra-red is an international collective working at the intersection of activism, art, and social action. Member, Chris presented in the Sound Arts Guest Lecture series and held a workshop in Autumn 2025.
Ultra-red, formed by AIDS activists Dont Rhine and Marco Larsen has been active since 1994, first working in LA doing harm prevention with a campaign swapping used needles for clean ones. The group wanted to document the affects of harm reduction including interactions with service users and police officers, this is when sound became a primary format for Ultra-red, archiving history whilst protecting identities anonymously. Additionally, Ultra-red uses listening as tool for political engagement, as a way to consider how and why social action might be taken, through listening within community spaces, the most pressing problems become apparent and action can be taken.
Within the guest lecture, the question arose ‘how can sound help us to enquire about the world and politics?’. This has stuck in my mind since, and subsequently, I have been considering how my practice can help audiences to enquire about the world and politics. It is important to me that my current work encourages audiences to critically engage with the world and politics, but in there own way and on there own account.
A key part of Ultra-red is organised listening which is usually done through sound objects. Sound objects simply are sounds listened to within groups and collectively analysed through the question ‘what did you hear?’. By doing this, ultra-red encourages groups to listen intently and by discussing what they heard patterns and problems emerge. The concept of organised listening to me feels similar to creating sound installations that encourage listening, when sound art is installed within public space (e.g. galleries), it can change how individuals listen through the collective action of interacting with culture.
In the workshop we discussed voice and the power associated with it. We considered how one voice is often not representative, thinking about how activism is comprised of a collective voice. This has made me consider, that within my own work, and how I plan on developing it, one voice may be interpreted as hierarchical.
Sound objects and collective listening
The sound objects gathered in the workshop were then played back to the group. We then did the Ultra-red exercise of answering on paper ‘what did you hear?’. After all sounds had been listened to we compiled a list of key themes from everyones sheets. Ultra-reds typical process is to then ask the preliminary questions.
Preliminary questions:
- What is the crisis? (What is the problem? What is the primary contradictions?)
- What is the analysis? (What is the explanation of the crisis? It’s causes, conditions, and beneficiaries)
- What is the strategy? (What is the process for both changing the problem and for testing the accuracy of the analysis?)
- What are the tactics? (What action, organisational forms, alliances, and practices will then embody that strategy?)
The goal of the preliminary questions is for action to be taken and from that hopefully positive change that is at the benefit of the group answering the questions. I have taken inspiration from these questions throughout the development of my project because, when working with a contentious subject, such as an arms factory, it is important to consider the wider impacts of the context in which my work exists. What i mean by this is; I am trying to create work from a place of curiosity and fear, however my own stakes within this context are much lesser than those who are affected by the products produced in said factory, so, how do I as an artist, in a privileged position, use such respond to the crisis at hand productively.