Luister'ns

How much can you learn about people by listening to conversations that aren't meant for you?

For Luister'ns, I spent hours listening to conversations on trains. I wrote down the things people said around me: small talk between strangers, conversations between friends, phone calls, complaints, plans for the weekend, and all the other ordinary things people talk about when they happen to share a carriage.

The result is a collection of observations about everyday conversations and the people behind them. Most of the conversations are mundane, sometimes funny, sometimes uncomfortable and often surprisingly revealing. Taken together, they become a portrait of life in the Dutch train.

The project started as an experiment in listening and observing. Rather than looking for extraordinary stories, I was interested in the things people say without thinking much about them. Luister'ns turns those fleeting moments into something you can read back and look at from a distance.

The book had a small public run in collaboration with the NS while I was studying at HU and was also featured by De Gelderlander in an article about the project.