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Acoustic Ethnography of Everyday Life

Research on the acoustic ethnography of everyday life with the aim of uncovering alternative knowledge production in its inclusive dimensions

„A renewed interest in the senses, then, leads to an intensified methodology, and inherently towards critical reflection on the ethical aspects of all scientific practices that concern human beings, and the epistemology it stands for. It compels us to reconsider who is in the power position to decide what true and valuable knowledge is, and for whome“
(van Ede, Yalanda (2009): Sensuous Anthropology: Sense and Sensibility and the Rehabilitation of Skill. In: Anthropological Notebooks 15 (2), p. 61–75, here p. 62.)

This framework set by van Ede I fill out in the sense that non-hegemonic (seeing or hearing oder listening) skills that enable alternative forms of the exploration of the world receive academic recognition as epistemological knowledge and are given the opportunity to enter the mainstream of academic knowledge.

To this purpose, I investigate auditory events of everyday life that are produced with objects. Individual sounds or sound ensembles recorded during predefined periods of time are cataloged and categorized in terms of their functional and aesthetic significance. Their sensory stimuli, derived from the visual, are neglected; their acoustic presence alone is examined. Other contexts, such as the material and weight, surface structure, or size of everyday objects, are tied exclusively to the sound they produce and embedded in contexts of acoustic functionality or aesthetics.

The extent to which such research can influence alternative knowledge production by using sounds of everyday objects as anchors, bookmarks, or leashes has been widely tested in praxeological applications, but has not yet withstood systematic analysis.

Contact: Dr. Antje van Elsbergen