Field recording jako metoda etnografii poprzez dźwięk

Abstract

This is a theoretical paper. The presented issues fit the Polish anthropology scholarship as well as nonacademic ethnographic practice. I fit the method of field recording into methodological and theoretical frameworks of the anthropology of sound and a broader framework: the anthropology of senses. Field recording must be understood as one of the research methods of sonic ethnography and a way to create alternative representations of fieldwork knowledge. Application of field recording in ethnographic research makes it possible track down social patterns, connections between collective emotions, auditory practices and social structures, which usually remain hidden and faded out in textual representations. Doing field recordings also allows the researcher to experience anthropological fieldwork in a more sensuous and immersive way. Field recording as an ethnographic practice focuses on extra-musical and extra-verbal sounds. It is a sort of deep listening: listening with particular attention. I also try to explain the notion of sonic ethnography which should be associated with the interpretation and translation through sound of local systems of meaning and values. Inside these systems do not always have to be connected directly with an acoustic phenomenon. Applying methodology of sonic ethnography allows to recognize non-visual meanings in social life and cultural practices.