Listening Initiative
Outline
The Listening Initiative brings together researchers from Swinburne University of Technology Sarawak (SUTS) and Swinburne University of Technology Hawthorn (SUT), who are co-producing research projects with communities exploring Extended Reality (XR), cinematic VR, mobile storytelling, and photography. The interdisciplinary research teams collaborate with the Dayak, Melanau, and local communities in Sarawak and internationally to bring people and technology together, using storytelling as the interface.
Partners
Investigators
The project launched with an exhibition at the Borneo Cultures Museum in Kuching, Sarawak, Malaysia (https://youtu.be/WIjQcdw2RO4). Through co-creation with Indigenous and local communities, these works decentralise authorship, challenge extractive research models, and align with UNESCO frameworks for safeguarding intangible cultural heritage. Some of the cultural practices and stories are at risk of being lost. The Listening Initiative facilitates a community conversation with and through emerging and immersive media weaving together the voices of its keepers, capturing both craft and story through oral histories and media technology.
Completed projects include:
- GAWE KA PADI, which captures the Gawai festival celebrated by the Salako Community in Pueh, Sarawak, Malaysia.
- WEAVING STORIES IN THE PALM OF A HAND: Mobile Documentary Storytelling of Melanau Terendak Ladies and Craftsmanship.
- CHINESE CALLIGRAPHY is more than ink on paper — it is memory, identity, and the quiet rhythm of tradition. “Digital Archiving and Storytelling in Chinese Calligraphy” weaves together the strokes of the brush with the voices of its keepers, capturing both craft and story through film, photography, and oral histories.
This project is dedicated to Ts. Augustus Raymond Segar whose commitment to collaborative storytelling continues to resonate through its methodology and outcomes.
