The grid of images in this work shows devices used for communication—from a megaphone to the classic two cans connected by a string, to old-fashioned rotary telephones. Missing are references to smart phones or more modern communication tools. Using these mechanisms from a bygone era, Carrie Mae Weems asks who has been speaking and, equally, who has listened. It is a privilege to be heard and Weems invites us to think critically about who historically benefits from that privilege.In showing the quieted tools of dialogue, Untitled Listening Devices) points to failures in communication, conjures awareness of surveillance, and all the while pleads for greater civility.